Ivy
by DecemberLuck
Summary: Ivy always hoped for a family, one that would love her. Her aunt was the one to find her father and she would forever love him for taking her in... Slash and Fem/Harry
1. Chapter 1

Ivy Lily Potter didn't understand what was happening. Her Aunt Petunia made her get up in the middle of the night along with her cousin, Dudley, and get in a cabbie. The cabbie driver looked at them with pity while Aunt Petunia looked at the cabbie driver with distaste. Ivy didn't think they looked that bad. Sure she was wearing Dudley's old jeans and a slightly ripped shirt and she had her hair up in a bun that her aunt forced her to do. Her aunt was wearing her tan skirt and white blouse under her trench coat that she only wore when it was raining. Dudley was wearing his new jeans and a red shirt. Maybe the cabbie was looking at them like that because she was wearing glasses that had cracked lenses, some dried blood under her nose, and a hand-shaped bruise forming on her shoulder/collar bone that was really close by her neck. Or maybe he was looking at her Aunt who was cradling her left wrist to her chest and had a black eye. Either way he didn't say anything and he made sure he got them to where her aunt wanted them.

The next few days were confusing. They made their way to the United States and then to California. Every night they stayed at a new hotel room and Aunt Petunia was always on the phone making calls till one day, about a week after they'd been there, they went to a medical clinic and Ivy ended up having to give blood, had a giant Q-tip go in her mouth, and some hair cut off. Four days after the clinic they had just moved into another hotel room when Ivy's aunt called to see if the results were in on the testing. Ivy had been sitting in the corner chair watching cartoons with her cousin as he laid on the bed in the room when her aunt gave a loud sound and immediately started to put her shoes on while indicating for them too also.

"What's going on Mummy?" Dudley asked as he slowly got off the bed and put his tennis shoes on.

"Where going to the store to get a new outfit for everyone and then we're dumping the girl with her father, so hurry up," Aunt Petunia said already grabbing her purse.

Ivy froze, "I thought you said that my father was died!"

Aunt Petunia grabbed her arm and forced her to follow after her and Dudley, "Your mother's husband is died. Your real father is still alive and kicking, so you'll be going to live with him. Now shut your trap and move it!"

They quickly made their way to a store where Dudley got new dress pants and a matching blue button up along with glossy new dress shoes. Aunt Petunia got a new pants suit that was black with a pink button up and new loafers. Ivy was dressed in the first dress she could ever remember wearing. It was dark blue with a black sash that went under her chest, she got a black cardigan that hid the bruise that was now a green with some blue still in it, and black flats. Aunt Petunia forced them in a family bathroom to change and made sure their hair was neat and flat and in Ivy's case her hair was put in a half up half down hair style.

They made their way into a cab that Aunt Petunia flagged down and made their way to a tall building that said 'Stark Inc.' in the front. Aunt nervously checked everyone before leading the way in.

"I'm Petunia Dursley and I have an appointment with Mr. Stark at 1:30," Aunt Petunia announced when they reached the guard at the front.

The guard checked in a book that was sitting in front of him, "I'll need some ID for all of you Mrs. Dursley."

"Of course," her aunt pulled out her driver's license and Ivy's and Dudley's passports.

The guard checked them and had Aunt Petunia write their names down, the time they came in and then gave them visitor stickers to put on. "Just go on up to top floor and there will be someone waiting for you."

"Thank you," Aunt Petunia said.

They made their way into the elevator and Aunt Petunia hit the biggest number on the panel to the right. "Dudley if you're quiet while the grown-ups are talking mummy will take you out to any place for dinner tonight. You girl not one word, understand me?"

Ivy nodded before huddling even further in the corner. Aunt Petunia glared but quickly walked out of the elevator when the doors opened. She had Ivy and Dudley sit in the chairs while she walked up to the brown-haired women sitting behind the desk.

"Petunia Dursley and Ivy Potter to see one Mr. Stark," she said when she reached the desk.

"Have a seat Mrs. Dursley and someone will be out in a moment," she said to Aunt Petunia before she hit a button on the phone. "Mr. Stark your 1:30 is here."

They didn't have to wait for more than five minutes when a pretty red-haired woman came out a door. She was wearing a black skirt suit with a maroon frilly button up underneath. "Mrs. Dursley, nice to meet you. I'm Pepper Potts, Mr. Stark's personal assistant," she smiled as she held out her hand to Aunt Petunia.

Aunt Petunia gave her fake friendly smile as she shook hands, "Nice to meet you as well, Ms. Potts. This is my son Dudley and this is Ivy Potter, my niece."

Ms. Potts stooped to where she was the same height as Dudley and Ivy, she smiled at them both. "Hello Dudley and Ivy. How are you enjoying the United States?"

Dudley frowned, "I think it sucks. They don't have any good programs on the Telly except for Saturdays."

Ms. Potts looked a little surprised, "I can see why that would suck, not being able to see your normal programs." She then turned to Ivy, "And you Ivy?"

Ivy quickly looked at her aunt who was glaring at her and quickly looked down, "It is a lot brighter here and not a lot of rain."

Ms. Potts smiled before standing up and gestured for them to follow her through the doors, "Is that a good thing Ivy? Not a lot of rain?"

"Not a lot of rain means you don't get as wet when you're outside," Ivy said matter-of-factly.

"Do you like going outside?"

"I'm always doing the garden, rain or shine," she admitted before blushing and looked down at the carpet.

Ms. Potts looked from her to her Aunt Petunia who was pale and frowned.

Aunt Petunia quickly said, "She enjoys being outside and love playing in the rain. I try to keep her in but sometimes she is too quick."

Ms. Potts was still frowning but she nodded as opened another door. There were two gentlemen in the room who were standing by a table that held six people. They were both wearing suits but one was younger by a good twenty years. He was wearing a grey suit with a maroon button up, glossy dress shoes, and he had a pair of sun glasses on. He had dark brown hair almost being black and he had a goatee. The older gentleman had graying hair that was trimmed neatly and he was wearing a totally black suit, shirt too, and black leather loafers.

Ms. Potts smiled as she walked towards the gentlemen, "Mr. Stark and Mr. Conrad may I introduce you to Mrs. Petunia Dursley, her son Dudley Dursley, and her niece Ivy Potter. Mrs. Dursley, Mr. Dursley, and Miss. Potter may I introduce you to Mr. Tony Stark and Mr. John Conrad, Mr. Stark's attorney."

After introductions were made Ms. Potts brought a tray over to the table that had six glasses and a water pitcher on it. Ivy quickly realized that everyone was there to talk about her and where she was going to stay. She kept quite as Mr. Conrad told Aunt Petunia that they were going to take things slowly so both parties could become used to each other. Aunt Petunia looked like she ate something foul but agreed to the terms that were set out. This was that they would have little get together so Ivy could get used to having a father and so that Mr. Stark could get used to having a daughter.

As they were getting up to say goodbye Mr. Stark came and knelt down by Ivy, "I hope you understand that I do want a daughter and I do want you to live with me but we should take things slowly so we can learn about each other. You still have family that has been caring for you for the past six years after all."

Ivy nodded still a little confused by what was happening. Mr. Stark smiled, looking relieved. "I'll see you tonight for dinner and hopefully you'll look to me as your father." He then proceeds to give her a hug.

Ivy stood there frozen as she realized that _her_ father was giving her a hug and wanted to see her again. Ivy was six years old when she first met her father and hope.


	2. Chapter 2

Ivy knew her aunt was pissed as they were leaving and made sure to stay as far back as she dared. Even Dudley knew his mum was mad and kept quite while they were driven back to the hotel they were staying in.

Aunt Petunia immediately started packing all their things in the duffels they had brought. "If he thinks for one moment that I'm going to keep the brat he has another thing coming." She looked straight at Ivy and sneered. "This would have been better if you had died along with your wretched mother or if her husband had killed you off before he did himself in."

Ivy immediately looked down and went to huddle in the corner. She had been told since she could remember how her mother had died during childbirth and how her husband killed himself a week after. Then how she was dumped on her Aunt Petunia's door and how her aunt and uncle took her in through the goodness of their hearts.

"Get up you brat!" Aunt Petunia yelled at her. Ivy immediately stood up and went to get the bags from her Aunts hands only to have her aunt shove just her bag into her arms. Hard enough to make her stumble into the coffee table and hit her right thigh. Tears went straight to Ivy's eyes but she kept them open so none would fall.

Aunt Petunia quickly got two cabs and had one wait with Dudley already in the back seat while she took Ivy to another. "Sir she needs to go to the Stark tower. If you could please escort her inside and just tell them her name someone will have your money."

"Lady, do I look like a babysitter?" the man asked annoyed. He had really tan skin and had black hair that was greying at the temple. He was wearing loose jeans and a grey shirt.

"No sir you don't but this will help me out a lot. Her father in working right now and he'll be meeting you when you go in. I have to get my son to a doctor's appointment, he is really ill at the moment. Please sir, I'll give forty dollars right now and you can still get your full payment when you get to Stark Inc.," Aunt Petunia pleaded.

The guy's eyes light up, "Give me the money and I'll take the brat to where you want."

Aunt Petunia sighed with relief, "Thank you very much, sir."

"Yeah yeah, what's the kid's name anyways?"

"Ivy Potter. Tell the guard that to when you get there," Aunt Petunia said before shoving Ivy in the cab with her duffel. "You be good for the nice cabbie driver and listen your father when you get there."

Ivy nodded confused, "Yes, Aunt Petunia."

Ivy watched as she was driven away, how her aunt got in the other cab with Dudley in it and how they drove off in the other direction then them. She watched the scenery become familiar the closer they got to Stark Inc. She watched as the cab driver jumped out to talk to one of the valets before coming to her door and opening it for her. She grabbed her duffel and followed him to the same guard that was sitting behind the desk.

The guard looked surprised to see her before noticing the cab driver. He proceeded to call someone over the phone. "Hold on one second and someone will be down."

The cab driver shrugged before sitting down. Ivy stood by the desk not knowing what to do. It didn't take but a couple of minutes before Ms. Potts rushed from the elevators and walked towards them.

Ms. Potts reached Ivy first and knelt by her, "What's the matter? Why did you come back and where is your Aunt Petunia?"

The cab driver quickly walked over, "Her aunt told me to drive her here because her son was sick." Ms. Potts stood up and turned towards him looking confused. "She also said that I would be paid once we got here and that her father would be waiting for her."

Ms. Potts looked horrified and angry, "Of course. How much do we owe you?"

"Well, you see, the lady told me I could leave the car going while we waited for someone to give me the money." The cab driver started to look nervous.

"Of course, how rude of me to not realize," Ms. Potts said. "Give me one moment, Mister…?"

"The name is William Blue, ma'am," William replied.

Ms. Potts gave a tight smile before walking around the desk to talk quietly to the guard. The guard stood up and nodded to Ms. Potts before heading for the driver, "If you just lead the way Mr. Blue and I'll pay the fare."

Mr. Blue nodded before looking at Ivy, "See you around kid."

Ivy waved before looking down again.

Ms. Potts sighed as they left before looking at Ivy, "Come along, Ivy. We'll wait in Tony's office while he is in a meeting." She walked towards the elevator and Ivy hurried over before she got left behind.

They were quite as they made their way to the same floor as that afternoon but they walked further till they went into a large room that had the biggest windows Ivy had ever seen. There was a desk right across from the doors, to the right was a wall-to-wall bookcase with a table model standing by it, and to the left was semi-circle of a couch, two armchairs, and a glass coffee table.

"Why don't you have a seat, Ivy? It will be about ten minutes before Tony will be done." Ivy nodded and walked over to the couch before gingerly sitting on the edge. "Would you like something to drink while we wait? I can get you water, juice, soda, or even chocolate milk."

Ivy moved her head that no she didn't want anything to drink, she was to nervous and scared to drink anything.

Ms. Potts frowned, "Ivy, you don't have to worry. Mr. Stark will know what to do but in the mean time you should have something to drink. I'll get you some water, ok?"

Ivy couldn't do anything but nod; she didn't want the nice lady to get mad at her yet. Everyone got mad at her eventually. Ms. Potts smiled before walking over to a small fridge that when opened had water bottles and glass bottles that different colored liquids in them, mostly brown. Ms. Potts opened the bottle and poured some water in a small glass that was sitting on top of the fridge before putting the opened bottle back in the fridge. She walked back over with it before sitting in the chair katty-corner to wear Ivy was sitting.

"So Ivy, did your Aunt Petunia say where she was going?" Ms. Potts asked with a smile on her face.

Ivy shook her head to indicate a no.

Ms. Potts hummed and nodded, "Well, since were waiting why don't you tell me a little about yourself?'

Ivy froze with the glass half-way up to her mouth, "What do you mean Ms. Potts?"

Ms. Potts just smiled, "Tell me what you like and don't like, favorite colors or foods or what you like to do for fun. And you can call me Pepper, Ivy."

Ivy just nodded. "Umm…I like the color purple and I like most foods." She wasn't sure what she was supposed to say but Ms. Pepper's smile just got bigger.

"I like the color purple also but my favorite is a maroon red like this," she pointed to her shirt. "I enjoy a lot of foods too but I'm allergic to strawberries, which means I can't eat them without being in pain." Ms. Pepper explained, she probably knew that I wasn't that smart and didn't know what allergic meant.

Just as Ms. Pepper opened her mouth again the door opened and Ivy's father walked in. "Pepper, what happened? The guard downstairs just said that Ivy was dropped off by a _cab_ driver!"

Ivy quickly stood up and turned towards her father while Ms. Pepper quickly stood up also, "Mr. Blue said that Ivy's aunt had him dropped Ivy off here and that her father was going to be waiting along with being paid here."

Ivy's father and Ms. Pepper just stood there looking at each other like they were having an conversation before her father sighed and nodded before looking at Ivy, "Well do you want to come home with me and we can get something to eat?"

Ivy nodded before following Ms. Pepper over to her father.

Ms. Pepper smiled at her as they walked out of the room, "Did you want anything special for dinner?"

Ivy shook her head; she didn't know what they wanted her to say. At least with her aunt and uncle she knew what was to be expected. Her father frowned down at her, "Ever have McDonald's?"

Ivy shook her head again while her father looked back up at Ms. Pepper, "Get me my usual and get Ivy a happy meal," before he looked back down at Ivy, "Do you prefer chicken nuggets or a hamburger?"

Ivy shrugged. "Get her nuggets then."

"Of course, Mr. Stark. I'll meet you back at your house," Ms. Pepper smiled at her before she towards a different direction while they made their way to the front of the building.

There was a black SUV waiting for them with a slightly chubby man holding the door open for them. Her father indicated for her to get in first so she slid in and put on the seat belt while he got in after and the driver closed the door.

"Where to, Mr. Stark?" The driver asked when he got into the car.

"Home, Happy." Tony smiled at Ivy when he said it and she felt warm.

I would like to thank everyone who reviewed and put story alerts up : )

I was wondering if anyone would be able to point me to a good beta or if someone would like to help me that would be great.

Read and Review : )

DecemberLuck


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or anything that relates to it and I do not own the Avengers or anything that relates to it.

I would like to give a Thanks to everyone who reviewed : )

This is the chapter that most people have been waiting for and I just wanted to warn everyone that it'll be a few more chapters before the avengers get involved.

Read, Enjoy, and Review : )

It was the day after she got dropped off by the cab driver and Ms. Pepper was going to take her shopping for clothes. Her father and Ms. Pepper insisted even when Ivy said she was fine with the clothes she had. Ms. Pepper ended taking her to a regular clothing store that had a target symbol for their logo. Ms. Pepper had her walk around the girls section to see if she liked anything but Ivy knew she didn't really want to say if she did or not. Ivy saw a lot things that she liked but knew she wasn't going to even touch them but Ms. Pepper seemed to know if she liked something and she would grab a couple of the sizes to put in the cart. Ivy tried to not stare at something to long once she realized but one dress just caught her attention. It was a black and white stripped dress that had white straps, a white cloth sash that tied in the back and it had three white/black buttons going from the top of the hemline to the sash. Ms. Pepper seemed to realize what she was looking at and then proceed to grab even more clothing from the same brand.

They ended up going to the fitting room about an half an hour later since no one was at the fitting rooms Ms. Pepper grabbed half the clothes and had Ivy go into one of the dressing rooms. Ivy was still wearing the dress that she had on the day before but it had been cleaned while she was sleeping so she shed that as she pulled on the white and black dress on first. She pulled on her cover up before she walked out to show Ms. Pepper.

Ms. Pepper looked up as Ivy stepped out and she smiled, "You look so cute! Does that one fit alright?" She asked as she stepped closer to look at her.

Ivy smiled back and nodded, looking a little pink in the checks.

Ms. Pepper smiled back, "That's good that you were able to find the right fit on the first try. Why don't you take the cover up off?"

Ivy immediately stepped back and shook her head, "I'm a little cold in here."

Ms. Pepper slowly nodded and took a couple of steps back, "Alright. Why don't you try on the other clothes and see how you like them?"

Ivy nodded and rushed back in the fitting room. She didn't want Ms. Pepper to see the bruises that she had; she didn't want them to know she was a bad girl. The bruises would disappear in about less than a week but she had to make sure her back was always covered which wouldn't be hard to do.

Ivy was in between her seventh and eighth outfit so her back was to the door and she was just pulling off the last shirt and discarding it in the pile that she didn't like. Ms. Pepper knocked on the door making her jump, twist around and she ended up jamming her elbow into the wall making her make a small cry of pain.

Ms. Pepper pushed the door open and she gasped when she saw Ivy holding her elbow. She took the two steps to get in the room and shut the door after her before pulling Ivy into her arms and looking at the elbow. Ivy sat frozen, fearing that Ms. Pepper would push her away in disgust.

Ivy started to relax once she noticed that Ms. Pepper didn't seem to be aware of the bruise and her back so she tried to move slightly over so Ms. Pepper didn't see her back at the least but Ms. Pepper's eyes seemed drawn to the mirror and Ivy tensed up as Ms. Pepper froze with horror on her face. Ivy tried to pull out of her grip but Ms. Pepper just held tighter to her arm making her stop. She didn't want to make Ms. Pepper get any madder. She flinched a little when Ms. Pepper reached out to push her hair completely off her shoulder to look at the bruise more closely.

"….Oh, Ivy…," Ms. Pepper sounded like she was going to cry. Ivy didn't understand why though. Maybe it was because Ms. Pepper was going to discipline her and was sad that she had to in a store. Aunt and Uncle were always mad when something happened when they had to bring Ivy along to a store and something happened. "Did your aunt and uncle do this?" Ms. Pepper was whispering as her eyes slid from her back to her green and purple bruise on her shoulder/collar bone.

Ivy was scared about what Ms. Pepper was going to do so she didn't say anything and just watched Ms. Pepper so she knew if something was coming or not. Ms. Pepper just looked even sadder as she stared back at Ivy.

Ms. Pepper drew Ivy into a hug, even though she tensed up even more, and said, "You don't have to worry anymore Ivy. Tony won't let anyone hurt you like this anymore and I won't either."

Ivy just nodded with her head on Ms. Pepper's shoulder.

Ms. Pepper pulled back and smiled while standing, she handed Ivy her next outfit helping her in to it. "Since we're here we'll just finish up that way we don't have to make any trips out for a while."

Ivy relaxed. Ms. Pepper wasn't going to say anything about her back and she still wanted to help Ivy. It only took them another hour to go through all the outfits that they picked. In the end Ivy ended up getting three plain shirts, four that had designs on them, eight tank top (four for undershirts and four pretty ones that had lace at the top and bottom), four plain button ups (two white and two black), blue blazer, a couple of hoodies, three cardigans (black, pink, purple), seven pairs of blue jeans in different washes, two blue jean skirts, five pairs of leggings (three white and two black), seven pairs of shorts (three blue jean and four in different cloth colors- white, black, baby blue, and purple), three plain sundress, a couple of nice dresses, five pairs of sleep pants, five pairs of sleep shirts, three different princess pajama dresses, a couple packs of socks, nylons ,and knickers. Then on top of all that Ivy also got two different dress shoes that had a small heel to them, a pair of sandals, flip flops, loafers, flats, and tennis shoes. Ivy was mortified when she heard the cashier say the total cost but Ms. Pepper just smiled and swiped a card.

The car ride home was slightly uncomfortable but that might have been because the minute they got in the car Ms. Pepper informed her that she was going to be telling her father what she saw in the fitting room. Ivy was tense the whole time it took to get from the parking lot to the house.

Ivy and Ms. Pepper took all of the new clothes to Ivy's own room. It was slightly bare but it was more than anything Ivy could hope for. Her room was right next door to her father's so it had the same basic lay out. Across from the door was a large floor-to-ceiling and wall-to-wall window. The bed was a full sized bed that had sleigh head and foot board. On either side of the bed were night stands that were in matching wood for the bed boards, dark cherry, each had a lamp and the one closest to the door and a phone. Right by the windows was a bookcase that was empty but there was a wooden rocking chair next to it and in front of the window. Next to the bookcase was a door that leads to bathroom, by that door was a cherry wood vanity with a mirror. Next to the vanity was a door to a walk in closet. On the same wall as the door to the hallway was a cherry dresser then the door and then a small cherry roll-top desk with a small roll away chair in front. The walls were beige but Ivy's father said that he would have them be painted to any color she wanted and that they would fill her room up with toys and books. The floor was a bare cherry wood.

Ms. Pepper's helped her carry all the bags till they were in the middle of the room. "I'll let you put the clothes away how you like and I'm going to go find your father." She smiled before she walked out the door.

Ivy stood there nervously before she started to drag most of the bags to the closet. Ivy figured she should do as she was told before they came back and got mad. Ivy put most of her clothes on the new hangers that she and Ms. Pepper got before they left the store, they were purple. The only things she didn't hang up were her pajamas, socks, knickers, shorts and tank tops. Those ones went in to the dresser. Putting all the clothes away took about 30-40 minutes and Ivy was just waiting for her father to burst in here and demand that she leave because she was freak and Ms. Pepper saw the proof.

Ivy couldn't wait for her father to come in here so she decided to go find him and Ms. Pepper. She figured that they would be in her father's lab, so she headed down in that direction. She was walking down the last set of stairs to get to the lab when she heard something crash and break. She froze for a second, waiting to hear another sound. Glass broke not even a minute later and Ivy could hear two voices now arguing and they were starting to get loud. Ivy walked down a few more stairs and she was able to see clearly into the lab. It looked like a storm went through it. The desk looked like it was flipped and a lot of gadgets were all over the room, broken, and lot of glass was on the floor. Ms. Pepper was standing by the door looking like she was about to flee but she was trying to calmly talk to Ivy's father at the same time. Ivy's father was kneeling next to his desk, holding something in front of him and Ms. Pepper seemed to be relaxing some. Everything was quite as she slowly walked towards him being careful of where she was walking. Ivy walked down the last of the stairs till she was standing next to the door where she noticed the bottom half was cracked from something hitting it. Ms. Pepper was starting to kneel next to her father and was still talking to him. Ivy could make out some of what she was saying to him. Mostly words of reassurance it seemed like.

Ivy was just reaching for the pad to press her finger against it when she heard Ms. Pepper say something that made her freeze and her father to react quickly. "Maybe it wasn't as bad as it looked?" She sounded a mixture of desperate for it to be true but in a defeated enough tone to know that wasn't true.

Still Ivy's father reacted by spinning up so he was facing them and he threw the gadget that he was holding straight at the glass window furthest of where Ivy was standing. Ivy immediately cried out and curled into the corner. She heard the glass shatter along with her father and Ms. Pepper calling out for her. As the glass shattered Ivy felt something in her being pulled, like sucking on a straw. She pulled her head out of her arms and she first noticed that the lights were flickering, her father was as white as a sheet, and that she was on the other side of the door.

Ivy darted for the other end of the lab, where the cars were and where the door leading to the outside was. She didn't care that she was stepping on broken gadgets and glass. She knew she had to get out before they caught her and sent her back to uncles. She didn't care that Ms. Pepper said that they wouldn't hurt her- adults _always_ went back on what they say. She learned that quickly with her uncle and aunt. Ivy had just made it to the half-way point when a strong arm caught her around the middle and held her up to equally strong and hard chest. Ivy struggled at first but when she felt the other arm wrap around her, she slumped. Ivy realized that she was crying hard, the lights were still flickering, and that the chest against her back was vibrating. It was like her father was talking but she couldn't her anything over her cries and heart pounding. She tried to silence her cries but that just made her cough and choke. Her father flipped her in his arms and sat them down on the floor, rubbing her back and telling her to breathe. Ivy slowly stopped crying and coughing while her father rocked her on the floor. Once Ivy could hear something other than her heart pounding she realized that he was humming and that was why his chest was vibrating.

Ivy remained limp in his arms, "I'm sorry. I don't know what happened."

Ivy's father just held her a little tighter and made a shushing noise before humming some more.

"I understand if you don't want me anymore but could you please not send me back to Uncle Vernon." Ivy whispered.

Her father froze and drew back so they could see each others faces. His face looked grave, it was still really pale compared to normal and his dark eyes looked wet and glossy. "Ivy…." he seemed to sigh her name as he gave her a chaste kiss on the side of her mouth. Ivy stared; no one ever gave her kiss. She always envied Dudley when she saw him get kisses like the one she got from both his mother and father. She also hated him for when he would push them away for giving him a kiss, especially in public. "I don't want you to go anywhere. I want you stay with me and I want to watch you grow up into a wonderful woman. I want to raise you to the best of my abilities. I didn't have much love growing up and I don't want you to know that feeling anymore."

Ivy felt her eyes water up and her tears sliding down her checks with even more falling when he brushed them off. Ivy thought this was too good to be to be true. She didn't deserve to have such nice things said to her or to be loved like she felt at the moment. Ivy felt she should at least warn him that things happened around her like they did today. "I do bad things sometimes…" she whispered to him, still looking into his eyes.

Her father just stared back before sighing, "I don't think you do and if that's true then that's fine because everyone does something bad a few times in their lives."

Ivy just shook her head, "I do them all the time. Like today, I didn't mean to make the lights go out or to appear on the other side of the door. It happens all the time at uncle's house. That's why he says he hurts me- to stop it from happening. That the freakishness has to be beaten out."

Ivy tensed up as her father's face went cold and his arms went tighter around her. Ivy couldn't help but notice that when he looked at her his face lost the coldness and he just drew her back into a tighter hug and hummed till she relaxed. Ivy realized that when he took her back that she was going to be miss being held and hummed to.

"I want you to forget everything your aunt or uncle," this word was said with hate, "has said. Your fine the way you are and it's the situation that you're put in that makes you react the way you do. As long as you're in a peaceful situation and not one that makes you scared or angry you'll be fine."

Ivy couldn't help but believe him; he said it like it was true. The more Ivy about it the more she realized that every time something bad happens was when she was scared. Her father was smarter than her uncle.

After everyone left the lab, Ivy's dad took her to a doctor to get the glass out of her feet. This turned out to be lucky for Ivy because she seemed to only step on glass with her left foot and only a few shallow cuts on her right which meant she just had to stay off of them till they healed. That meant no walking for at least a week (she would have the help of crutches). While they were there though Ivy's dad made them record any sign of neglect and abuse. It was during that part where the doctor had her strip that Ivy got really nervous and everyone present could tell.

The doctor was a pretty blonde, older woman who told Ivy to call her Dr. Allison, "If makes you more comfortable, Miss. Stark, it'll just be you and I in the room. I just need to take pictures of anything that looks like abuse. It'll take probably around the same time as the x-ray took depending on how many pictures I need to take."

Ivy searched for her dad who was standing next to her. When he saw that she was looking at him, he smiled and nodded, "If it'll help I'll go outside the door and wait with the nurse."

Ivy didn't want him to leave so she shook her head but whispered, "I want my dad and Dr. Allison only."

The redheaded nurse smiled and left out the door and Dr. Allison relaxed and smiled. "We just need you take off the pretty dress you're wearing and we'll get started."

Ivy's dad ended up helping her take off her cardigan, dress, and shoes but the doctor left her in her knickers for now. Ivy kept her eyes on her dad's as the doctor started to take pictures of her front side. The bruise on her collarbone/shoulder and how you could clearly see Ivy's bones protruding. Ivy's dad's face went cold when he saw the bruise but when he noticed that she was staring at him his face went smooth- not smiling but not cold either. Ivy made sure she kept her eyes on her dad's even when the doctor paused and his eyes went over her head. She kept her eyes open even when she wanted to cry as he went to stand behind her with the doctor. She kept them open even when she heard him curse. She twisted her head and saw her own back with the mirror that was on the back of the door. She only saw the first half of the scars on her back because her dad and the doctor were standing there but she knew what her back looked like. She didn't need to see to know.

At the middle of her back there were scars of the end of her uncle's belt buckle. She had twelve in total of belt scars. Her uncle believed in hitting as many times as her age. At the bottom of her back, where it curved in, there was a five letter word craved into her skin. A word she was always called-FREAK.

Ivy looked to her father and noticed that he was white liked earlier and she tensed up even more. The doctor hadn't even started to take pictures yet and Ivy was starting to shiver in the coldness of the exam room. Ivy's dad looked to the doctor and gestured for her to continue but before she did she had Ivy step out of her knickers. The pictures took another half-an-hour before they were done.

Ivy's dad helped her get redressed and picked her up to sit on his hip and held on to her. Ivy quickly snuggled up to him as he started to hum a little to her.

Dr. Allison gave a sad smile as she looked at Ivy and her dad. "Ivy, I'm going to ask you a few questions, I'm going to record it and we'll be done for the day, O.K.?"

Ivy nodded. They ended up staying for another two hours. Dr. Allison wanted to make sure they had as much detail as they could.

After they had seen Dr. Allison Ivy went to several different doctors. She saw Dr. Allison whenever she got sick or hurt herself, went to an older gentlemen who helped her start a routine for meals (Ivy ended up having several small meals a day instead of three meals a day), and another woman who just had her talk about anything and everything (from living with her aunt, cousin, and uncle to living with her dad and Ms. Pepper). It took another couple of months before Ivy realized that her dad wasn't going to get mad or abuse her if she had any type of accident.

_It looked like it was going to rain before she was put into bed and tucked in. So it shouldn't have been a surprise to wake up with her room light up from lightening and a large rumble shaking the house slightly. Ivy still woke up with a cry and immediately feeling wet and cold. She pulled back the light purple comforter and she saw why she was wet. Her princess night gown was soaked from the waist down along with the princess sheets under her._

_ She jumped when she heard Jarvis "Is there something the matter, Miss Stark? Did you need me to get Mr. Stark for you?"_

"NO!" _she cried out. _

_ Ivy jumped out of bed and scrambled to get the sheets off her bed but they proved to be a little more difficult as one corner continued to hug the bed. Ivy started to cry as she couldn't get it undone and as she went to crawl over the bed she felt the mattress just as soaked. She sat there for a moment trying to catch her breath, stop crying, and try to figure out what to do. She knew for sure if she didn't clean it up that her father was going to send her back._

_ She heard a knock on her door as it slowly opened to reveal her father standing in the door way looking worried and slightly surprised to see her as she was. Ivy immediately stopped trying to pull the sheet out and just sat there looking up at him as she cried._

_ "I'm so sorry! I don't know what happened!" she sobbed as he came nearer and also revealed Ms. Pepper behind him looking worried._

_ Her father bent slightly and put his hand under her armpits and picked her up from soiled bed and then proceeds to put his arm under her wet bottom so she was sitting on his hip. She tried to squirm out of his arms but he just held her tighter as he sat in the rocking chair by her bookcase in front of the windows. He had her sit on his lap with her butt on one leg and her legs dangling off the other leg and he hugged her to him and just held her. She was so shocked that she just put her arms around his neck and cried. He started humming and rocking the chair; soothing her. Ivy flinched as thunder rumbled and lightening flashed making her cry a little bit harder._

_ Ms. Pepper walked further in the room and went to her dresser to pull out fresh knickers and a new dressing gown to wear. "Jarvis, the windows please." She whispered as Tony nodded to her. Jarvis blacked out the windows so nothing could be seen._

_ Ms. Pepper pulled off the sheets and went into the bathroom. She came back with two towels and put the towels down on the bed and lightly pressed down. _

_ Tony picked Ivy up and carried her into the bathroom putting her in the bathtub. He turned the water on to luke warm and turned the detachable head on while pulling it down so it wasn't spraying her head on. Ivy had stopped crying and was only releasing slight hiccups and she obediently held her hands up when he tugged her gown up and had her step out of her wet knickers. He quickly got a wash cloth and helped her wash herself off and when she was clean again he got two towels to dry her off in. One for her wet hair and one for her body, after she was dry Ivy quickly pulled the fresh clothes on and let her hair be pulled back up into a quick braid that Ms. Pepper did. _

_ All the while that was happening her father reassured her that everything was fine and that it was just an accident. That he wasn't mad, that Ms. Pepper wasn't mad, that everything could be fixed, and she wasn't in trouble. _

_ As they walked back into her room she saw that her bed still had the towels on them and that Ms. Pepper was taking them off to be replaced by dry ones._

_ "Come along Ivy," her father said, pulling her by her hand. "Let's leave Ms. Potts to clean this up and lets go to bed."_

_ Ivy protested, she made the mess she could clean it. "But I can help clean it up! Where else am I going to sleep?"_

_ Ms. Pepper said, "Its fine, Miss. Stark. It doesn't bother me to clean it up." The same time her father talked, "Ms. Potts knows what she is doing and we'll be sleeping in my room."_

_ Ivy gaped at the both of them as she lead out of her room and down the hall to her fathers were he tucked her into his bed before going into his bathroom room and coming out in clean sleep pants and a normal tank._

_ He got in the bed on the other side and pulled her into his arms where she laid slightly tense before relaxing as he hummed. _

_ She never felt safer._

Ivy had an accident every night the following month, even if there wasn't a thunderstorm or not. Her therapist said it was a way for her to make sure that her father wasn't going to 'get rid of her'. After the first night they, her father and Ms. Pepper, put a protected cover on her mattress so if another accident happened only the sheets would get wet. Then after four days of it happening her father brought home pull ups for her to wear at night. Ivy ended up wearing them about two weeks after she stopped wetting the bed and continued to wear them on the nights that thunderstorms came through. On the night's thunder storms happened she would wake up and then go looking for her father to cuddle with, it didn't matter if he was in his room or downstairs in his lab. Her father didn't care either for he would either let her climb into the bed or carry her to his room where he would hum to her.

Ivy fully believed that she wasn't going to be abused or sent away about two years of living with her father but it was six years after that she realized that he could be taken from her.


	4. Chapter 4

Once again I do not own Harry Potter or anything that relates to it and I do not own Marvel or anything that relates to it.

Thanks to all that reviewed, sorry if I didn't respond to your review. I try my best to.

I'm sorry if there was any misunderstanding with Ivy's scars. When I said that there was 12 and that her uncle felt that he should hit as many times as her age was that there were two separate times that it happened.

Once again Read, Enjoy, and Review : )

Ivy was fourteen years old when she heard the most horrible news of her life but the day before and the day of started out as any other day.

She heard Ms. Pepper talking to another woman when she walked into the living room still in her pajamas, purple sleep pants and a tank top that had a Queen's band logo on it, and her hair in a messy bun. Ivy saw Ms. Pepper dressed in a nice black skirt suit with a white button up under while the blonde lady (who Ivy recognized from Vanity) she was talking to was only wearing one of her father's dress button-up shirts. Ivy thought that was distasteful and really gross.

Her jaw dropped as the blonde lady was rude to Ms. Pepper but she busted out laughing when she heard Ms. Pepper's response. They both turned to look at her; Ms. Pepper still had a small on her lips that was quickly dying down into a small look of embarrassment while the blonde looked pissed before she gave a fake smile to Ivy.

"Why it's Tony's famous daughter, Ivy. Pleased to meet you…." But before she could continue Ms. Pepper quickly stood in front of Ivy and glared at the blonde. "I'm sorry but you don't have clearance to speak to Miss. Stark." Ms. Pepper turned to Ivy and quietly said, "Why don't you go get dressed before we leave for the day?"

Ivy nodded and ran back up to her room. She still had a smile on from what Ms. Pepper said as she went into her walk in closet. She pulled on pleated blue skirt that fell just above her knee caps and a white tank top that went above her white bra but under a white long sleeved shirt that then went under a blue sweater vest; her school uniform. Ivy quickly pulled her hair out of the bun and put it in a french braid that Ms. Pepper taught her to do and tied the bottom off with a blue ribbon. She finished her uniform off with sheer panty hose and brown loafers.

Most people thought she went to some posh school for the rich and in a way that was true. Only certain people could get in and everyone who has heard of it knows it's a school for the elite, at least in the United States. Ivy found out she was magical when her father told her she was (about a year of living with him) and when she didn't truly believe him he had the headmaster of the school she goes to come down and give her a demonstration. Since Ivy started to get self-defense classes she also learned to meditate which help her control her emotions so she slowly stopped have bursts of magic.

When she turned eleven she had gotten about six different acceptance letters to different schools from the North America and Europe. The United States on was Salem Witches' Institute (in New Hampshire), another in Alaska and one from Canada (in the middle of nowhere) made up the North America. The other three from Europe were Hogwarts, one called Durmstrang and the other was Beauxbatons. After talking to her dad, Ivy decided to go to Salem Witches' Institute. One- they already met and sort of new the headmaster, two- they had a dual program of learning magic and still teach muggle classes, three- Ivy wouldn't have to stay at the school for nine-to-ten months out of a year, students left once they were done for the day. Salem was in a way more like a muggle high school than any other magic school. Salem was also one of the more demanding magical schools just because they expect all students to have a certain grade and for students to be on top of their classes be it magical or muggle. The students still varied from the ages of 11-19 and they were separated by what time zone they lived in and age. The only classes that weren't separated were the muggle exclaves because students choose new ones each year or two depending if they wanted to take have them all year or half a year. Salem had everything set up around what time zone you lived in, so if you lived on the Eastern sea board then those students got to school first and were able to leave school first. Since Ivy lives on the Western sea board she would start three hours after Eastern Time. The way they did it was so the students wouldn't have a time lag when they returned home.

The classes themselves were split up. Ivy would have four magical classes then lunch and after would have four muggle classes. They were split so she have the same classes on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday- Charms, Transfiguration, Defense, and Potions then came lunch then there was the muggle classes- Muggle History, Art, English, and Science. On Tuesday and Thursday Ivy had for magical classes- Herbology, Magical History, Ancient Runes, and Healing. After Healing was lunch then she had Psychology, German, Math, and P.E. The only time she had to come back was on Wednesday's nights for her Astronomy class from 9p.m. to 10:30p.m. Ivy's muggle classes like Art, Psychology, and P.E. changed each year, in her first year she had taken Health, Computers, and Swimming. She changed her magical classes at the beginning of this year, her fourth, because she originally had a free period on Tuesdays and Thursdays but it got replaced by Ancient Runes and she had decided that she was going to stay with Healing for the whole seven years of schooling. Students had the choice if they wanted to have dinner at the school, ask teachers any questions, or go home.

Ivy wasn't used to having so many different classes a week in the beginning but she quickly learned that if she did all homework during her any periods, even lunch, and right when she got home she could do what she wanted for the rest of the time. If she didn't understand something than she could always contact her best friends, Susan Bones and Blaise Zabini, or go and ask her dad. It just depended on the subject. She also quickly learned about the different ways of magical travel. Most students took either three different ways of getting home. Each student outside of the Eastern Sea board all took a portkey to an building in their area and would either floo home, have a parent come get them through the use of Apparating if they're magical or if have a muggle parent they could pick you up. Since the building was in Seattle (kind of in the middle of Western Time Zone) Ivy always used the floo that the America Magical Ministry set up in the laundry room they had. The only time she didn't use the floo was when she went to her friend's house to either sleep over or just do homework. When she did that Blaise's Mum or Susan's Aunt would let her use the floo home or Apparate, it all depended on what she wanted. She normally let them Apparate her home since she hated the floo but only when they weren't tired after their jobs.

In the end Salem was just a better suited school for Ivy than any of the others. Sure the ones in Alaska and Canada were about the same distance as Salem but she would have had to stay there for the whole school year. Ivy didn't even considered going to one of the European schools, one reason being that they were so far away and another reason being that she didn't want to have to stay in Europe for her next eight-ish years. She didn't mind visiting but she couldn't stand being so close to where ever her old relatives ended up.

She skipped down to her father's lab where Ms. Pepper was trying to get her father up stairs and ready to leave for the Middle East. She smiled as her father made his way over to where she was standing at the door.

He picked her up, she was still short enough (4'8") for him to pick her up considering he was 6'1' and Dr. Allison didn't think she would be any taller than 5 feet and that was pushing it, "How are you, darling? Good night's sleep?"

Ivy laughed as he walked up the stairs and hugged him as she replied, "I'm good and yes. It was funny to see Ms. Pepper tell the blonde off as she did."

"Sorry Doll, you weren't so supposed to see her." Her father said, frowning.

Ivy, even before understanding who the women (sometimes men too) were and why they were there, would sometimes wake up earlier and sit in the living room just to make them uncomfortable when they walked out. Even more so when she realized why they were there, she found it hilarious. Ivy didn't care who they were and her dad didn't make her stop doing anything; he just tried to kick the people out sooner.

"It's OK. I understand, Jarvis did tell me to wait for Ms. Pepper but I didn't want too, I wanted to see you as much as possible before you left for your trip." Ivy whispered as he and Ms. Pepper walked into the kitchen.

Her father sighed but nodded, "Well you wait here and eat your breakfast while I go take a shower."

"OK, Daddy," Ivy skipped over to a bar stool and hopped up as Ms. Pepper went to the fridge and her dad walked out the room.

"What would you like to have this morning, Miss. Stark?" she asked as she poked around the fridge.

"Cereal and fresh strawberries, please," she said before using the stool to twirl around in.

"Coming right up and what did you want for lunch today, packed or bought?"

"I wanna buy today!" she exclaimed, stopping her spinning. "They have the stuffed bread sticks today!"

Ms. Pepper smiled as she poured her cereal in a bowl with already cut strawberries and milk. She made sure to wash her hands after handling the strawberries.

It took another hour and half before she got to school as she saw her dad leave with Mr. Rhodey.

It wasn't till the following morning that Ms. Pepper came in with her eyes wet like she was about to cry. Ivy had been in the process of getting dressed for school so she was only in a tank top and her blue panties, as she was about to start rolling her nylons on.

Ivy was immediately worried because she had never really seen Ms. Pepper cry before. "What's the matter? Did something happen to dad!"

Ms. Pepper swept Ivy into her arms and sat in the rocking chair that her father always took her to when she was upset. "I'm so sorry Ivy. Tony was in a Humvee on his way back to base when they got attacked. They can't find him and they do have some search groups out right now."

Ivy froze, she couldn't believe this was happening, "…but I thought Mr. Rhodey was supposed to be there and make sure he was safe!" She started to bunch the nylons into her hands and twisting them.

Ms. Pepper had tears falling down her face but Ivy didn't want to cry yet. "Mr. Rhodes is out there right now searching for him. It's all we can do right now, is just search and hope."

Ivy started to shake her head as the nylons slipped out of her hands to the floor, "He's alright. He'll come home, you'll see." She knew he was still alive and coming home, she could feel it. He was coming back. "He won't leave me like that. He'll come home."

Ms. Pepper just started to cry a little bit more and hugged her some more.


	5. Chapter 5

_Thanks for all the reviews : )_

_I just wanted to say now that I have the story set up in different 'arcs' for each movie (Iron Man, Iron Man 2, and then the Avengers). I have two more chapters for the first arc and then we'll start on the next. Thought I would tell you that now. _

_I've been trying to do break lines for the story but the site hasn't been taking them so I'm hoping that by using numbers it'll work. So the numbers are not part of the story but to just break up the sections of the chapters._

_Once again Read, Enjoy, and Review : )_

Ivy still believed that her dad was coming back even after a couple of weeks and no sign of anything.

She still believed when Ms. Pepper moved into the house.

She still believed when Ms. Pepper got in contact with her old therapist and had Ivy see her.

She still believed even when her therapist started to talk about it and what was going to happen if he didn't come back. Ivy didn't talk to her.

She even stopped talking to one of her teachers when she overheard him talking bad about her dad.

She still believed even when other kids picked on her.

She still believed when her friends started to treat her differently.

She still believed when Blaise started to treat her like glass and made sure she didn't hear what other students were saying.

She still believed when Susan started to lead her around by holding her hand on days she felt a little more dazed and when she would duplicate her notes for Ivy.

She still believed when she got in a fight with an older student for calling her dad a 'bastard who only killed people because he sold weapons to kill.'

She still believed even when Ms. Pepper was rushed to the school and made sure that Ivy was healed the muggle way as part of her punishment of fighting, which the school nurse agreed with. That she had to wear a cast for fracturing her wrist when it got hurt in the fight.

She still believed when she was grounded for a week for fighting and getting suspended for three days for fighting.

She didn't stop believing even though every night she would sneak out of her room and into her dad's and sleep either in his bed or on the floor of his closet; both places smelled the most like him.

She didn't stop believing even when Ms. Pepper would get teary-eyed whenever she found Ivy in those spots.

She didn't stop believing when Ms. Pepper slowly got more down.

She just didn't stop believing even after three months went by and she never cried, not once during the whole time he was gone.

55555

Ivy was shocked and slightly confused when Ms. Pepper slammed the door open to her father's closet where she was sleeping on a couple of sleeping bags and pillows.

"James found Tony!" she shouted as she fell to her knees by Ivy. Ms. Pepper immediately drew Ivy into a hug and started crying. "Tony is going to be here in a few hours! He's coming home! Come on and get up. Go take a shower and I'll have breakfast waiting for you when you're done. Tony called you off of school; he wants you to be there when he gets home."

Ivy scramble up, "Wait you talked to dad? Can I call him!"

"He's already on the plane back home. Go hop into the shower and come downstairs, it'll be couple of hours of waiting for us." Ms. Pepper pushed Ivy out of the room and into her own.

Ivy went straight to her school bag by her desk and pulled out her cell. No messages of any kind. She dropped the phone on her nightstand, disappointed. She didn't understand why he didn't message her.

Ivy just stood in a daze before going to her bathroom. She took a shower in a daze. She made sure she put her contacts in correctly even if it took her a couple of tries. She was still in a daze as she pulled on blue jeans and a black tank top that went under a white knit sweater along with black flats and a white head band to pull her hair out of her face. She made sure the sweater's right sleeve was rolled up over the slim cast that went up half way to her elbow.

She ate the pancakes and sausage patties quietly as Ms. Pepper seemed so nervous that she couldn't stop talking about everything and anything.

Ms. Pepper had Mr. Happy drive them to the airport where tons of other people were waiting. Ivy stood next to Ms. Pepper while they waited and she looked at the ambulance in alarm, "Why are there EMT'S here, Ms. Pepper? Isn't dad alright?"

Ms. Pepper gave a watery smile to her, "We just need to make sure Tony is fully at a 100%. Nothing to worry about, it's just like when you see the doctor before school starts every year and makes sure your up to date with everything."

Ivy nodded to show she understood but her attention snapped to the end of the runway where an army plane was landing. She always believed that her dad was coming back even when the news and magazines said he wasn't and even when the people who knew him started to lose faith. She couldn't believe she was going to see him in the next five to ten minutes as the plane slowly came to a stop. She still couldn't believe that she was seeing him when he walked out the back with Mr. Rhodey next to him, helping him down. Her dad still looked the same. Still in a suit and had glasses on but he was a little more scruffy in the face which had some cuts on it and his arm in a sling.

Seeing the sling made her pause before she could move. She hid her right arm behind her back right before her dad's eyes went to her. She always knew when he was looking at her when he was wearing shades. Ms. Pepper said that it was always annoying that she could do that because she couldn't.

Her dad made his way to them even more quickly and then pulled Ivy into his arms, even having his injured arm go around her. Ivy clung to him when he made to let go and he easily pulled her up, putting her on his hip like he used to when she was six. She wrapped her arms around him the best she could given that her wrist was in a cast and he had an injured arm.

Ms. Pepper made a sound of protest but didn't say anything when Tony looked at her but she did say something when Tony made a request to get a hamburger and then a press conference. "You should really go to the hospital and make sure you're alright!"

"Food, conference, and you can tell me why Ivy has a cast on. And it doesn't have to be in that order. Food while you talk," he said as he got in the car and put Ivy in the middle so Ms. Pepper could get in on the other side.

Ivy put the seat belt on as Mr. Happy started to drive, "Don't blame Ms. Pepper for my arm, Daddy. It happened at school." Ivy scooted till she was as close as possible to her dad while still sitting in her seat.

Tony just wrapped his arm around her and planted a kiss on the top of her head.

Ms. Pepper smiled at them, "It seems that another student a couple years ahead of Ivy insulted you and she decided the best way to respond was to attack him. He ended up with a broken arm, bruises and a lovey cut on his check while Ivy fractured her wrist, a cut on her face, and a good few bruises."

"While I'm proud you stood up for yourself and the people you believe in, other people are entitled to their opinions. I've been called everything and anything under the moon. You're getting older so people are going to be rude to you for what I've done in my life. I wish I could protect you from it but you're going to have to get a tougher skin and not resort to violence. The only time for that is if a creep is about to touch you or they hit you first. Understand me?" Tony made sure Ivy was looking into his eyes.

"Yes, Daddy," Ivy whispered, just happy that he was there in the flesh.

55555

Ivy stood next Ms. Pepper while her dad and Mr. Stane where up at the podium, after everybody had sat down.

Ivy was listening to everything her dad was saying and watching a man in a typical black suit walk up to Ms. Pepper and introduces himself as Agent Coulson. She giggled when she heard the long name of the organization that he worked for (Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division). Ivy's eyes snapped back to the front as she heard all the reporters leapt to their feet and start shouting out questions. She watched with distaste as Mr. Stane started to basically hustle her dad off the podium. She never did like him but she was always polite when he was around for her dad.

Ivy walked around the reporters to reach her dad even though she hated everyone's eyes on her because almost everyone watch as her dad draped his arm around her and they left with Ms. Pepper following.

55555

It was around one in the morning when Ivy woke up having to go to the bathroom and wanting something to drink. After going to the bathroom she made her way downstairs to the kitchen. She paused when she got to the door; her dad was sitting at the counter with a glass of whiskey (the bottle was also there) in front of him. Ivy didn't see her dad drink that much but she knew he did just from the bottles in the house and in his lab. Ivy was almost certain that he normally drank when she wasn't around; very rarely did she see him with a drink. Ivy just stood there looking at him. He had changed when he had gotten home so instead of the suit he had on jeans and a Metallica shirt on. She could see the arc reactor glowing beneath it. He had shaved also and he wasn't wearing the sling any more. Ivy knew he wasn't the same; she didn't need anyone to tell her that- she saw it in his eyes when she first saw him.

While Ivy was staring at him, he must have known someone was there because he drank his shot before turning to look at her. Ivy smiled at him while walking towards the fridge.

"Hi, Daddy."

"Hey, Doll. What are you doing up?" he asked, as he poured himself another shot.

Ivy opened the fridge, pulling out the milk while replying, "Had to pee and was thirsty."

Her dad nodded before shooting back the shot and getting up to get honey out of cabinet and a large mug that had her name written on it. Ivy smiled, putting the milk next to him and sitting on the stool next to the one he was sitting in. She watched him put the milk in the microwave and after taking it out putting the honey in before handing it to her.

She let out a sigh after she took a sip, "You always make it the best. Ms. Pepper tried but it always missed something. Must've been your personality or something." She grinned at him.

Her dad laughed while putting the honey and milk away. "I'll make sure to tell her that she can't do it all, like she says. I can do some things on my own."

"Like showering," Ivy snickered as her dad sat next to her and poured another shot.

He just laughed again before taking a sip.

Ivy just watched him while drinking her milk. Sitting up closer just made him look a little more broken than before he left, even more so with the scratches on him. She could feel tears pooling into her eyes and squeezed her eyes shut as she drank the last of her milk. She didn't cry when he went missing and she didn't want to cry now. She wanted to show that she wasn't a cry baby. She couldn't remember the last time she cried liked this. Sure she cried when she watched chick flicks or when she accidentally fell or something but she hadn't cried because she felt overwhelmed or upset. She kept working through her problem, crying wasn't going to help when you could immediately start on the problem.

Ivy pushed her mug to the side and put her head, facing away from her dad, on the cold counter. She could feel some tears sliding out of her eyes leaving a hot trail to her hair and some dripping to the counter. She felt and heard her dad set down his shot glass and get out of his chair. She felt him put a warm hand on her back inbetween her shoulder blades, his heat just sinking through her night shirt to her.

Ivy turned around and looked up at him through her watery eyes, "I missed you so much, Daddy."

"I know, Ivy. I missed you, too," his voice was low and soothing to her ears.

"I never stopped believing that you would come back," she whispered. "I knew you wouldn't leave like that." She kept her eyes open so the tears wouldn't fall and her eyes landed on the glow that was in front of her face.

"You don't have to be strong anymore, Darling," he gave her a sad smile when she looked up at him. "Pepper and Jarvis told me that you didn't cry when she told you that I was missing or after. She also talked to your friends and they said you didn't in their presence. You're allowed to cry anytime you want, Darling."

Ivy just wrapped her arms around him and laid her head a little to the side of his heart, listening to it pump away as her tears finally fell. She let him pick her up as she started to sob. She felt him walk back up the stairs to her room and after picking something up, sit down in the rocking chair.

"Even though I believed you were coming home I was so scared that you wouldn't," she hiccupped as she curled into a smaller ball on his lap.

"Shh…," he started to hum before handing her a teddy bear. She buried her face into the stomach of the bear just breathing in the lavender smell, slowly calming down.

Ivy fell asleep on her dad's lap, being rocked and holding her bear.


	6. Chapter 6

_Thanks to all the reviews : )_

_I wasn't to happy with this chapter when it first came out but I feel like its o.k. Not the best and not one of my favorites but it's o.k. _

_I have a question for everyone and I would like to know what everyone feels on it- Who do you want Ivy to have a relationship with?_

_I have someone in mind and I'm pretty sure I'm going to stick to him but I just wondered what my reviewers thought : )_

_Once again Read, Enjoy, and Review (I'm going to be putting the chapter right after this one up later today)_

It was about a week after her dad finally came home and Ivy felt just as lonely if not even more lonely as she did when he wasn't here. At least when she came home Ms. Pepper would be waiting for her and help her with any school work or even ask how her day went, just like he used to. She did understand that her dad had changed after being held for several months and he was working on something but she still felt lonely. It was the first Saturday since he came home and Ivy had just gotten home from spending time with Susan and her Aunt Amelia at the movies. Ivy had made sure to wear black jeans and the white knit sweater, the same that she wore when her dad came home, with a pink tank top with a smiley face that had a crown on it under the sweater, knowing it would be cold watching two movies back to back. She pushed her hair back with just a pink headband and wore her white vans. When she had gotten home it was to find her dad in the lab again and Ms. Pepper had come upstairs to talk with Ivy and eat a snack for about forty or so minutes till Mr. Stane had shown up and Ms. Pepper sent her upstairs as she went to get her dad to come upstairs. So Ivy had gone to her room to keep herself occupied till someone came up or Jarvis told her it was O.K. to go down.

Ivy just looked around her room as she stood in the door way. Her room hadn't really changed in the past few years besides decorations and little things of the like. Instead of beige walls they were now plum purple with black details around the window and doors. The floor wasn't bare anymore; there were several matching rugs placed around the bed, bookcase, and in the closet, all were purple with a light purple Ivy, the plant, boarding it. There was a white chaise, with a black rectangle pillow and black fleece blanket on it, in front of the window by the bed and the wooden rocking chair got replaced by a large, plush, black rocking chair with a matching rocking ottoman. Her bookcase was filled with books- fairy tales, classical books, mystery books, and the bottom shelf was filled with the same looking books, black leather books, total of nine books. Her small roll-top desk got replaced with a plain, cherry, corner desk that had drawers on both sides. On top of the desk there was a sleek computer screen surround by different school books and notebooks with a school bag sitting on the floor by the rolling chair. Sitting by the lamp on the desk there was picture of Ivy and her dad; Ivy looked to be about seven years old and she was smiling right at the camera, showing that she was missing her bottom two teeth in the front, with her dad right behind her pushing her on a swing. Hanging over the desk was a bulletin board that showed even more pictures and a couple of random drawings. On her sleigh bed was a laptop that was lying on her bright purple sheets with the black comforter thrown back.

Ivy sighed as she walked from the doorway to go around the bed to pick up the stuff animal she knew was on the floor. It was a brown teddy bear with a pink bow around the neck, Ivy had gotten it from her dad the day they had gone to the doctors and had recorded her abuse. Ivy's dad said he gotten it for her since she was so brave. It had been her first gift. Ivy still slept with it.

Ivy held it close to her as she walked back out of her room and went to her dad's. She hesitated before she opened the door, she had been sleeping in there for the past three months (besides the past week) and her dad always welcomed her (Ivy set a system up with Jarvis to tell her if he had company over for the night, which is how she knew to get up early the next day) when she wanted to sleep in there but she felt off going in there. She winced as she could here yelling suddenly erupted from downstairs, she couldn't make out the words but they had to be loud for her to hear it. She hurried into the room, shut the door behind her blocking out the yelling, and quickly crawled under the blankets. She realized that she was freezing. She only stuck her head back out to talk to Jarvis, "Jarvis, the windows please and some light music. If you could wake me when Mr. Stane and Ms. Pepper leave."

The window blacked out so the sun wasn't spilling in the room anymore and light classical music started up, quietly, "I will, Miss. Stark."

"Thank you, Jarvis." Ivy ducked back under the sheets and cocooned herself before falling into a restless sleep.

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Ivy woke up violently, several hours later, with a pounding head to the sound of a door slamming close, a blissful second of quite then some yelling and then the door slamming again. Ivy ended up falling off the bed and landing on her right arm making it start pulsating in pain and she realized that she was sweating from being under the blankets and her knit sweater. She slowly got up and made her way out of her dad's room and back into her own. She took off her sweater and made her way into her bathroom. She looked into the mirror after splashing water on her face. A pale face, with flushed cheeks, that was slightly pinched from the pain of her arm, was staring back at her. Her green eyes were slightly red and her hair was a mess as her head band came off while she was sleeping. Ivy brushed her hair back into a ponytail and pulled her contacts out, throwing them away as she pulled her eye glass case out. She splashed her face once more and dried it off as she pulled out her thin, silver framed glasses on. She quickly took off her jeans and threw them into the hamper and walked back into her room to get black sweat pants that had the same smiley face as her tank out of her dresser.

"Who slammed the door, Jarvis?" Ivy asked as she made her way over to her nightstand to grab her cell phone. There was a message from Blaise and Susan. Blaise calling her and Susan rude for not inviting him along for the movies, even though his mother had him going to his cousin's house for the weekend. Susan just sent a smiley face and said that she hoped Ivy felt better.

She quickly typed a message to send to Blaise- a smiley face with a tongue sticking out and Susan- a heart and a 'thanks' before turning the cell off. She didn't really feel like talking with anyone.

"The first slam was Mr. Stane and then Mr. Stark didn't take to kindly to that, proceed to yell at him and then slammed the door in his face," was the dry response. "Ms. Potts is getting ready to leave in a few minutes."

Ivy nodded and went to move her right arm, making it spasm in pain and making her hiss slightly. "Miss. Stark, if I may, I believe you should tell Mr. Stark and he would be able to give your medication to you."

Ivy scowled, "I hate taking what Dr. Allison gave me- it makes me feel funny and you know that. I'll just grab some Advil or something."

Ivy was walking downstairs when she bumped into Ms. Pepper.

Ivy went to go to apologize when Ms. Pepper spoke first, "Sorry about that Miss. Stark but you should be really more careful of where you walk. Not everybody is going to move when you walk in the way."

Ivy's jaw dropped, she didn't even know where that came from. She could feel her head just pound even more. "I'm really sorry, Ms. Pepper. I'm not really feeling the greatest and I hurt my arm getting off of a bed."

Ms. Pepper's eyes snapped down to Ivy's face before frowning, "You should really take care of yourself better. Mr. Stark and I won't always be there when you need something."

Ivy didn't know what happened in between this afternoon after she had gotten home and her coming downstairs but it seemed to put Ms. Pepper in a foul mood. Normally Ivy stayed out of the way when they had a difficult meeting but Ivy had thought Ms. Pepper was gone and she knew her dad was going to be in his lab till late, again.

"Go to the kitchen and get what Dr. Allison's prescribed for you to take if you're not feeling well and your arm is hurting," Ms. Pepper told her.

Ivy immediately protested, "I don't want to take them! They make me feel really sleepy. I was just going to take an Advil or something so I can stay up a little bit longer." She also didn't feel like feeling sick either, at least any more than she was at that the moment.

Ms. Pepper just sighed, "If you want to be stubborn and not take something that will get rid of the pain, _fine _but don't come to me when your arm is still hurting." Ms. Pepper grabbed her purse and suitcase and stomped out of the house leaving Ivy to stare at the door in disbelief, shock, and a little hurt.

Ivy walked from the bottom of the stair to the kitchen where the basic medication was put along with any medication Ivy was prescribed. Ivy knew that her dad kept anything he has to take or has ever taken in his bathroom but it was easier and safer her medication to be in the kitchen, in its own cabinet. As Ivy was walking through the door way into the kitchen she knocked her right hand into the doorway. She immediately clutched her arm to her chest and slowly breathed through her mouth as she tried not to cry. She walked quickly to the medicine cabinet and opened it. She searched for Advil or Aspirin and found the Aspirin bottle. While reaching the Aspirin bottle she knocked over several other bottles including the prescribed one Dr. Allison gave for her arm.

"Damn it," she whispered as she put the Aspirin bottle on the counter and dropped to pick up the other bottles with only one hand. "Stupid bottles."

"Miss. Stark, did you want me to call for your father?" Jarvis asked in his polite British voice.

"No, I don't want you to do that!" Ivy snapped as a bottle fell out of her hand making the two wobbled and dropped back down. Her head started to pound even more and she could feel her cheeks flushing.

"My apologies, Miss. Stark." Jarvis said coolly.

Ivy snorted, "Yea, right," as she dropped back down to grab the bottles. This time though she stuffed two of them in between her right arm and body, ignoring the twinge it gave by moving while holding the last one in left hand.

Ivy quickly put the bottles back into cabinet and turned back to the Aspirin bottle. She tried to hold it in her right hand but every time her hand went to curl it would hurt even more. When she switched hands to hold it in her left hand and twist with her right it hurt even more but it got the bottle open, but her hands were shaking so much that the open bottle fell and it spilled everywhere. Ivy could only stand there, slightly shaking with tears in her eyes.

"Miss. Stark, I'm going to call your father," Jarvis calmly said.

"I told you I don't want you to!" Ivy said in a loud voice making herself wince as her head started to pound in sync with her heart. "Don't bother me unless I ask for your help!" She hurled the empty bottle at the panel that Jarvis was wired to. It just bounced off and went to the floor to roll by the door frame to stop by sock clad foot.

Ivy looked in surprise to see her dad standing there, still in the clothes that he was wearing that morning, jeans and a rumpled shirt with his arc reactor glowing through. While Ivy's look of surprise morphed into a scowl her dad looked at her in surprise and slightly in disbelief as he looked at her and the mess on the floor. Ivy looked away from her dad and dropped to the floor to scoop up the pills even though her right arm was throbbing in tune with her head and heart.

"What has Jarvis done to you to make you throw something at him?" her dad asked her in a light tone, as he reached down to get the empty bottle.

Ivy tensed as he walked over to her, "He's done nothing," she hissed out.

Her dad stopped about a foot away from her, "Wow, that doesn't sound like nothing. Is it time for your monthly's to start up?" He said it in his joking tone with a small smile.

Ivy could feel her face burn up as her head snapped up to look at him. She gave him a dark look which made his smile turn into a frown. "No it's not my time of the month." Ivy knew she wasn't being kind at all. She didn't know why she was irritable, in a way she did but she didn't know why she was saying such mean things. Ms. Pepper seemed to have spread her foul mood and all Ivy knew was that she was hurt because he hadn't called her or asked her really anything so far that week. She knew he was busy with his decision at the company not to mention it being the first week back home. She knew he was trying to fit back in with normal daily life. That he was improving his arc reactor and demolishing all future plans on weapons. Ivy had gotten used to her dad not being able to talk or spend a lot of time with her due to making inventions for the company and sometimes meetings. She was even used to him leaving her at home with Jarvis when he went out to parties and then even leaving her with Ms. Pepper or Mr. Happy when he went out of town for special events. But each and every time he would call and talk with her for a little bit- even if to ask how she was doing or to say good night.

Ivy did know that her head and arm were killing her, that she felt like she was going to pass out, that she was starting to freeze but feeling clammy too and she hurt emotionally. She was used to talking to her dad after school every day, while having a snack before she did any homework, telling him about everything that had happen that day. Then she would listen to him as he complained about how Ms. Pepper was being mean that day or about some new invention. The forty minutes after school were for them to talk together, without any friends or Ms. Pepper there; it was their bonding time.

Her dad's face went cold when she snapped at him, "I don't know what your problem is but you better get over it quickly. I thought when Ms. Potts called me, after she left, to say that you were being rude and back talking, that she was lying but I can clearly see she wasn't. You do not talk to me that way, Ms. Potts in any rude tone after everything she's done for you, and you do not throw things at Jarvis or be rude to him. Do you understand me?"

Ivy just stared at him with a scowl still on her face. She refused to show how much his tone hurt her or how he didn't ask _her_ what happened between her and Ms. Pepper. She did flinch, however, when he tossed the empty pill bottle into the sink and grabbed her left arm. He tugged her closer to him. "I don't know what's happened to you in the past three months but I did not raise a girl to talk back to her elders. I also know if I was here when you got in that fight for someone saying something mean to you, you would have been grounded way longer than what Ms. Potts gave you. You should be lucky I let you go out with Susan today. I know I've been busy the past week but that is to make sure this company, the same company that puts food in your mouth, stays afloat. I'm trying to make a better world for you to live in, so you don't have to worry about terrorists or weapons. Do you understand me?"

Ivy lost her scowl right after her dad grabbed her and was looking down at the ground at the floor, tears in her eyes. She nodded her head to show that she understood but she gasped as her dad shook her arm lightly and growled out, "Look at me when I'm talking to you. Do you understand?"

Ivy head snapped up and she made sure her eyes were wide so no tears were let out, "Yes, Dad I understand."

Her dad dropped her arm, "Go to your room and don't come back out for the rest of the night." He pointed his hand to the door when she hesitated, "Apologize to Jarvis also."

"I'm very sorry I was rude to you tonight, Mr. Jarvis. I promise I won't do it again." Ivy whispered before rushing out of the kitchen and fleeing to her room.


	7. Chapter 7

_Thanks for all the reviews :)_

_As I said this morning I would put out this chapter tonight- so here it is  
_

_Read, Enjoy, and Review : )  
_

Ivy shut her door quietly behind her while locking it the same time. She knew Jarvis could and would unlock it but her and her dad had come to an understanding. If the door was locked then the person had the right to deny if they came into the room or not. It didn't matter how mad someone was at the other person, they respect that they couldn't come in. Ivy slumped headfirst into her bed, crying. She didn't care who heard her crying, she had a right to cry. She didn't know what went so wrong but she honestly didn't care at the moment; she felt like crap. The last time her dad was this mad was when Ivy just wrote a note saying that she was going over to Blaise's house; she was eleven. Her dad was furious when he got home and realized that the person who was supposed to be watching her let her slip by and didn't even realized. He was also furious that he had wait for someone else to bring his daughter home, considering Blaise lived up in Seattle. Somehow being grounded together made Ivy and Blaise the best of friends; Susan didn't become their friend till after they worked on a project half-way through first year.

Ivy looked up to her window when she saw something flash behind her eye lids; it was starting to storm outside. Ivy rolled her wet eyes and went into the bathroom to wash her overheated face off. When she was done in the bathroom she went to her bookcase and pulled out one of the leather books on the bottom before plopping into onto the chaise. Ivy may hate her aunt for many things and never forgive her but she would be grateful that she found Ivy's dad for her and gave her two chests full of her mother's things. Like the diaries that rested in her bookcase. Each one was basically a year in her magical school called-Hogwarts; detail of the classes, students, professors, rooms, and all the creatures around the school. Her mother even went into detail of the war that was happening and finally how Ivy was conceived.

Ivy fell asleep on the chaise with her mother's words bouncing around her head. Ones that spoke of going to a conference/dinner with her father when she was eighteen. She had just broken up with a James Potter because she caught him with another girl from their year. Her father worked as physicists and brought along his youngest daughter to mingle with his co-workers and listen to the speeches that were given. That's when she had met Ivy's father. He had kind of zoned on to her when he saw her; she was young and gorgeous. Lily had been charmed by the young Tony Stark and they had hit it off. That night Lily had lost her virginity and she didn't regret it once. She kept in touch with him as he was supposed to stay the whole week for conferences; every night she saw him.

It wasn't till he had gone home and that James had come back groveling that she found out she was pregnant. She made a deal with James; she wanted the baby but she knew that her parents would be furious that she had one out of wedlock. James' parents were hounding him to settle down as most pureblood heirs, his age, had already gotten married and were expecting their first children. Lily had grown fond of James as their marriage had taken place and he proved that he would be able to love the child she was carrying. The baby would be his heir even if the baby wasn't of his blood.

Ivy woke to someone knocking on her door, lightening flashing with thunder not to far behind and her head still pounding. She looked at her clock which read 12:32. She put the diary face-down on the chaise before heading to the door. Her dad was standing outside the door with a tray that had multiple things on it; her mug with honey milk in it, her teddy bear, pink headband, M&M cookies, a glass of water, Advil, and her prescribed medication.

Ivy looked wary as she stood back and her shamed-face father walked into the room and put the tray on her chaise next to the diary. She slowly walked back to her spot on the chaise watching her dad pull up the ottoman so he was sitting in front of her. Ivy looked at her dad who was staring back at her. She saw her dad reach for her arm and she gave it to him without hesitation. He may have been mad earlier but she trusted him to not harm her. He was still her father who loved her and took care of her.

"My arm doesn't hurt, Dad," Ivy said, withdrawing her arm back from him.

He nodded, "I'm sorry about that. I shouldn't have done that; I have no excuse for that. I should have asked for the whole story before I went off on you."

Ivy nodded her head as she grabbed her mug and took a sip. She threw her headband to her bed while pulling her teddy bear into her lap. She ignored the medications and the cookies for the moment.

"Jarvis showed me the clip of you and Ms. Potts. I'm not going to make excuses for her and I will be talking with her about her behavior. She should have never spoken to you like that. I am also sorry about what I said downstairs. You are the most important person to me, not the company or anything I may be working on. You are the one who comes first for me; not the company. I remember how I felt when my father was never around and I never wanted you to feel the same thing. I apologize for that the most. I never wanted you to feel the loneliness that I felt."

Ivy nodded as she grabbed a cookie and taking a bite she said, "I shouldn't have freaked out on you when you came in. I should have explained what happened."

Her dad nodded before reaching for a cookie also, "I'm sorry that I haven't been there like I normally am but I promise that it will go back to how it once was. Understand, me?"

Ivy gave a smile while nodding. She did because once her dad said he was going to do something he did it. He would go back to eating a snack with her after she got home from school. Helping her with any school work if she needed and eating dinner with her no matter what he was doing at the time.

Her dad reached for the medication on the tray, "Now, I understand that your arm is hurting and giving how pale your face is I would say that you still have a headache?" It was a statement and question in one. Ivy watched him read the label of the medication that Dr. Allison prescribed.

She nodded, "My arm doesn't hurt as bad, I can move it without it hurting but my head is hurting. My ear started to ache after I woke up."

"Well, you have two options; take Advil and hopes it takes all the aches away or take what Dr. Allison gave you. Jarvis said that you don't like taking it because it makes you feel 'funny'."

"It makes me feel like I'm going to throw up sometimes. Every time I've taken it I've had a meal like it says to on the label," Ivy shoved her next cookie into her mouth.

Her dad frowned as he opened the bottle and took a pill out, "How long have you been taking it for and how many times have you taken it?"

"Well, I got in the fight about four days before you came home so I took it three days in a row, twice a day with meals. One before school and one at dinner," she replied with her mouth half full of the cookie with another in her hand.

Her dad shot her amused look, "Chew before speaking or you'll choke." Ivy just gave a huge grin making sure he could see the food in her mouth, making him give her a look. "Did you tell Ms. Potts about the medication?"

Ivy nodded, "We even called Dr. Allison but she said that my body just had to get used to the medication. It did take away my pain but I always felt like I was going to throw up after I took it."

Her dad put the bottle back on the tray before grabbing the Advil, taking two out, getting the glass of water and then took the half bitten cookie and the mug out of her hands to switch.

Ivy made a face before putting one pill in her mouth and swishing it back with the water and repeating with the next pill.

"I'll call Dr. Allison in the morning and have her switch you to something new." Her dad handed her back the mug but proceed to eat the rest of the cookie. Ivy scowled at him before grabbing a new one and shoving it in her mouth. Her dad shook his head at her making her laugh and choke a little when the cookie went down wrong. Her dad's face had the classic 'What did I tell you?' look as he patted her back a little.

Ivy just looked at him sheepishly.

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Ivy woke up with her clocking blinking 5:48 and having the need to throw up. She sluggishly made it to the door frame of her bathroom door before she hurled up everything she ate the last day or so. She dropped to her knees as she threw up again.

"Your father is on his way, Miss. Stark," Jarvis announced calmly and quietly.

"Thank you, Jarvis," Ivy whispered as she leaned against the door frame. She let out a moan of pain as her headache came back in force.

She whimpered when the need to throw up again felt and did so as her dad ran into the room. She felt him rub her back as she threw up and then the back of his warm hand against her forehead.

"You're burning up," he picked her up before taking a huge step over her sick to get into her bathroom. "Do you still have a headache?"

Ivy nodded, "It just came back and my ear is starting to hurt again."

Ivy watched him as he pulled out a thermometer, a wet wipe, and fill up a glass with water. He put the thermometer into her mouth and while waiting for it to go off he wiped her face with the wet wipe to get the sweat and sick off her face. He swore when he pulled the thermometer out and gave her the glass of water.

"Swish that around, I'm going to get you some new clothes," he hopped back over the pool of sick in the door way.

Ivy swayed a little when she got up, walked to the sink and spit the water that was in her mouth out. She looked at the mirror has she got her toothbrush ready. She was really pale under her flushed cheeks, her hair was sweat soaked, and the hoodie and sweat pants she was wearing had some of her vomit of them. She felt like she was going to throw up some when she saw the thermometer on the sink; it was blinking 102.3.

She was just finishing up with her mouth when her dad hopped back in with new sweat pants and shirt. Ivy's dad helped her get out of her hoodie so none of the sick would get on her. She looked into the mirror as she took off her sweatpants and tank; her dad put them into her hamper for her as she put the plain white shirt on over her white bra. Since she came to live with her dad all those years ago she had gained weight but she had a hard time keeping it on. So people could still see some of her bones but it wasn't startling, she was on the thin side but she had meat on her bones too. Since her dad had been captured for three months she had a hard time with her food. She lost about five pounds in the three months that he was gone but since she was so thin already it made it worse to put it back on. She was roughly 85 pounds at the moment, which was why most people didn't have a problem picking her up and moving her if need be.

Her dad help kept her upright as she put on the clean black sweat pants and he then picked her up, bridal style, to walk out of the bathroom. He carried her into his room where he pulled on sneakers and a black zip up hoodie. While watching him do that she grabbed the fleece blanket that was at the end of his bed and wrapped herself into it. She walked down the stairs with him as they made their way to one of the cars in the lab.

Ivy watched at the dawn sky meet the night sky as her dad drove into the city. "Going to the hospital?"

Her dad nodded, "Your fever is really high and I want to be safer than sorry."

It didn't take more than ten minutes to get to the hospital and parked into a space. Ivy got out slowly and still stumbled a little getting out. Her dad was next to her and picking her up just like he did when he saw her at the airport; blanket and all. Ivy tucked her head into his shoulder and wrapped her arms and legs around him.

Ivy peeked out to the lobby when they made their way to the front desk. There wasn't anybody waiting and Ivy could hear the nurse at the front desk popping gum.

"Where do I sign in?" her dad asked as he reached back for his wallet.

Ivy heard something get put on the desk before the woman said, "We'll also need an insurance card and make sure to write down what's the problem."

Ivy heard him writing on the paper before they turned to go sit on a love seat so Ivy didn't have to move from her position. Ivy grinned slightly when she heard a gasp and then her dad scoff.

"Mr. Stark, if you want to follow me, I'll get Miss. Stark's vitals," a new nurse stepped out from behind the desk nurse who still had her wide eyes on them. Ivy knew if the situation was different her dad might have hit her up as she was a pretty blonde with brown eyes.

Her dad followed the other nurse into an exam room and they watched her snap the door in the blonde's face, as she tried to peek into the room. "You can have this back," she handed the insurance card back. "It says here that Miss. Stark has a fever, head and ear ache, and vomited three times, is that correct?"

Ivy felt her dad nod. "Go ahead and place her on the bed and I'll get her vitals and we'll set you up with a room in the back."

Ivy let the blanket fall to her waist when she was placed on the bed. She winced as the blood pressure cuff tightened on her arm and when the nurse shoved a thermometer into her ear. The nurse made a 'tsk' sound when she saw it. "102.6, need to get that down right away."

Ivy felt fear grip her as she heard that and her head swung to look at her dad who a little pale but gave her a reassuring smile. Ivy and her dad followed the nurse into the back where Ivy was forced out of her warm clothes and into a thin hospital gown. Ivy wasn't allowed to have a sheet or blanket, they did put several cold towels around her body and her dad sat in the chair next to the bed while they waited for the doctor to come and see her, holding her hand.

The doctor ended up being an older gentleman who recommends that they get switched to a quieter ward and stay for the next 24 hours or at least till her fever broke. He said that since her original doctor, Dr. Allison, worked in the same building then she would be coming to check her over. That along with her fever she had a double ear infection.

Ivy and Tony had moved to the quieter ward about an hour after the E.R. doctor saw them and Ivy was finally starting to feel somewhat comfortable. Her new nurse had just left after putting in an I.V. and her dad was on the bed with Ivy leaning on him, drifting in and out of sleep.

Ivy was dozing when she heard a knock on the door and her dad called for them to come in. She felt her dad tense up next to her and she lifted her head to see who it was. Ivy saw Ms. Pepper standing in the door way looking guilty and pale.

Ivy turned her head to look up at her dad to see that he had on his business face. She scooted back a little for him to get up which he did. He re-tucked into the bed and walked to Ms. Pepper forcing her out the door and closing the door behind them. Ivy just shut her eyes and dozed back off.

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Ivy was released from the hospital the next morning, which meant she missed a day of school and then she was to take off the next day due to low fevers. Her dad set her up in the living room for the day, seeing as she didn't have a T.V. in her room. It was routine by now for them. When Ivy got sick when she was younger she would camp out in her dad's room and watch Disney movies the whole day while her dad brought her food and everything else she needed. When Ivy was around eleven and caught a bad upper chest cold, her dad was out of town for two days and he had Mr. Rhodey come and watch her as he had time off for the week. Mr. Rhodey had set her up in the living room to watch movies the day she started to cough and by that evening she had gotten really bad that he just kept her there and he, himself, and camped with her on the other couch. Since then she camped out on the couch.

Ivy didn't know what happened between her dad and Ms. Pepper but not for the lack of asking. Her dad wouldn't say anything when Ivy woke up several hours later for lunch.

Ivy watched her dad bring in a tray of food for them to munch on during the movie and she sat up from her laying down position to grab a handful of grapes. She let her dad settle in next to her before leaning against his side as he turned on 'Lady of the Tramp.'


	8. Chapter 8

_Thanks for the reviews _

_I realized that I did mess up the spelling of 'Lady and the Tramp' sorry about that and I wanted to say that the prescribed medicine was just a pain med, to help when Ivy's wrist started to hurt.  
_

_On a side note I'm excited to say that I just finished the 2nd Iron Man movie/arc and am about to start the Avengers movie/arc when I get home from work tonight :)  
_

_Read, Enjoy, and Review :)  
_

It was several weeks later and Ivy was spending the night over Susan's with Blaise. Ivy hadn't seen Ms. Pepper in that time. She did know that her dad had a talk with her. Ms. Pepper had sent over her favorite pastry, brownies, with a note saying she was sorry but that was last she heard from her. This was fine with Ivy because she was still hurt from what happened.

Ivy did however find why she had gotten a cold in the first place, it seemed that a bug was going around the school and about a good third had gotten sick. Including Blaise, who blamed Ivy since he dropped off her school work that she had missed. Ivy was just happy that she didn't have to be in school to see other students rush to the garbage can to throw up, Blaise said it happened at least five times on Monday. The school did end up sending a notice home to parents/guardians about if their child had a fever to keep them home for at least twenty-four hours.

Ivy's dad had sent her to Susan's home the minute she had gotten home from school and already packed her a bag with clothes for the next day and a couple of scary movies. Ivy didn't question it more than just asking if he was alright and what was happening. Her dad just responded that he wanted her to be safe at Susan's while he took care of Mr. Stane. Ivy just nodded, gave him a hug and a kiss and walked back into the floo to Susan's.

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It was several hours later and they were camped out in front of the T.V. watching the Michael Myers films that Ivy's dad had given them. Ivy was wearing just a lacy, pink, tank top with a plaid, dark and light pink, sleep pant with her hair in a messy bun. Susan was wearing a long sleeved shirt, lime green, which had a white star in the middle and matching short. Susan was around 5'4", long blonde hair and bright blue eyes. Blaise was wearing a plain white shirt and black sleep pants. Blaise was 5'7", black with high cheek bones and long, slanting hazel eyes.

Susan's aunt Amelia set them up in the living room as it had the biggest T.V. Susan and her Aunt had only lived in the modest two-story house for the past six years. After Susan's parents had been killed in the War Amelia moved them to America where she was put in the Department of Defense and she quickly made her way up to being the Head of the department. For the first few years in America Amelia had them living in Washington D.C. before moving to Washington, the state.

While watching the movies the girls had decided to paint each others nails and toenails with Blaise watching. When they were done with their own they had jumped him and forced him into getting his done as well. Which is how Ivy and Susan ended up sitting on their sleeping bags and Blaise was tucked into a corner glaring at them and his nails.

"Pure evil that's what you two are," muttering could be heard. "You two do the devil's work."

Ivy and Susan were hard pressed to stop laughing. They eventually ended up trying to coax Blaise out of the corner with treats and when that didn't work they bodily moved him. They then proceeded to fall asleep with their heads on his chest with their bodies sticking straight out, kind of a weird cross.

It was that same position that Ivy woke up in but she could hear giggling coming a few feet away from her. She opened her eyes and saw her dad standing over them with Susan's Aunt and Blaise's Mum a few feet away. She quickly shot up but got stuck in her sleeping bag and ended up head-butting Blaise in the stomach, smashing her nose. Ivy curled up in a ball as Blaise tried to sit up but was stopped by Susan lifting her head and they ended up banging heads. Ivy watched through watery eyes and holding her abused nose as the parents and guardians laughed as they were curled in pain. Ivy sat up still holding her nose but she eventually had to press her nose against her shirt as it started to bleed. She saw Blaise and Susan had matching red marks on their foreheads.

Ivy watched through narrowed eyes as Susan's aunt healed her nose and soothed Blaise's stomach and head along with Susan's head with just a swish of her wand. "Thank you, Aunt Amelia." All three of them said at the same time.

Aunt Amelia just smiled at them, looking like she was still smothering a laugh, "Time to get up and ready for the day. We'll be in the dining room with breakfast."

With that Ivy watched all the adults leave the room talking and laughing together. She realized that her dad looked a little worse to wear; he had a couple of new cuts on his face that wasn't there the night before.

Blaise left to use the bathroom to change while the girls changed in the room together and then meeting up in the hallway. Ivy had changed into the clothes her dad had packed for her- a light blue long tank with a slightly darker blue knit shirt and blue jean capris with white flats. She pulled her hair into a ponytail. Susan had changed into a purple bubble skirt with a white linen shirt that had a V-neck. She had just pushed her hair back with a white head band. Blaise had switched into black pants and a blue button up with black dress shoes and he had on a plain, but expensive, black wizards robe.

"Mother and I are going out to the Hollow this afternoon," Blaise explained when he saw the girls looking at his robes. They just nodded.

The Hollow was where all the wizards in America went to go shopping for anything they needed. It was large with tons of stores for everything you needed to get in one stop. It was always filled during the year, even more so when school let out but it was always packed when students got their letter.

When the three got to the dining room the adults were already eating and talking about their jobs, as they hadn't seen each other since before Ivy's dad had been captured, so they were just catching up. The Witches always found Ivy's dad's job fascinating while Ivy's dad enjoyed learning what he could about the Magical government as Susan's Aunt worked as Head of the Defense and Blaise's Mum knew all new bills or about to be processed bills, her newest husband worked for a law office.

Ivy and her friends quickly sat down and started to fill their plates up as they talked about their classes and upperclassmen. They started to talk about what was happening in Europe since Susan and Blaise had family over there.

"Guess who placed first in the Triwizard?" Susan asked Ivy, while taking a bite out of her pancakes.

"Krum, of course," Ivy replied. It wasn't hard to know without even looking at the newspaper that morning.

Blaise snorted, "We all knew that. My cousin flooed me last night to tell me all about the Dragons and what each person did with them. I heard Diggory transformed a rock into a dog and Delacour tried to put it a sleep. My cousin knew Krum would win the second he heard they were going up against dragons."

"Yea, well, your cousin is an ass," Susan snapped, stabbing some eggs before shoving them in her mouth.

Blaise's eye brows rose up before smirking at Susan who just opened her mouth to show him her chewed up food.

"That's disgusting, Susan," Blaise snapped at her while Ivy just let out a loud, "Eww!"

Ivy saw the adults look down at their end; her dad and Blaise's mum snorting while Susan's aunt sent her a disapproving look.

"Just 'cause you opened a box filled with frog guts he sent doesn't mean he is a complete ass," Ivy laughed while Susan, who flushed red, sent her a glare. Blaise laughed at her.

Ivy looked up when her dad called her name. "Well I'll text you guys later," she said as she got up, getting nods from her friends.

"Bye, Ivy! See you soon," Susan said.

"Maybe next time we have a sleep over you won't wake me up in such a horrible way," Blaise called out.

Ivy flushed as all the adults laughed.

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Ivy watched as Agent Coulson gave her dad note cards to read while giving his speech. Ivy snorted when Agent Coulson told her dad to just stick to the cards, she didn't think he would. Which was why when her dad walked out she went to stand next to Agent Coulson and Ms. Pepper. Agent Coulson always seemed to be wearing the same suit every time Ivy saw him but Ms. Pepper was wearing a black sleeveless shirt, black knee length skirt with matching heels.

Ivy watched her dad walk to the podium with Mr. Rhodes standing to the side before turning to the other two, "I'll bet you two a hundred dollars that he won't stick to the cards and revel himself."

Ms. Pepper gasped, "He wouldn't!"

"Really, Ms. Pepper? You've known my dad for how long?"

Agent Coulson smiled at her, "Mr. Stark will stick to the cards."

"You sound awful confident, Mr. Agent. Are you going to take that bet?" Ivy smiled at him innocently.

"I'm not going to take your money," he said, turning his attention back to the T.V.

"Think of it this way, it's my dad's and he won't notice it missing if I lose."

Agent Coulson smiled at her before holding his hand out which she slipped hers into and they shook. "Deal," They ignored Ms. Pepper who started to protest.

"Shh, he's starting."

A few minutes later had Agent Coulson frowning as he pulled out his wallet and handed Ivy five twenty bills. Ivy held out her hand to shake his once more, stuffing the money into her front pocket, "Pleasure doing business with you, Mr. Agent."

"Pleasure," he sighed as he let go of her hand. "You do know that my name is Coulson, right? Not Agent."

Ivy grinned at him as she flopped on the couch, "Of course I do but it's such a mouthful. See your first name is kinda short but I'm not about to call you Phil when I don't know you so it is Mr. Agent."

Agent Coulson smiled back her before nodding to her and Ms. Pepper while flipping his cell open to answer a call. Ivy scooted over as Ms. Pepper sat down next to her as Agent Coulson walked towards the back of the room.

"You shouldn't bet, Ivy," she scolded. "You should give Agent Coulson his money back."

Ivy snorted as she shook her head, "Mr. Agent shouldn't have taken a sucker bet. Even _you_ wouldn't have taken it."

"I wouldn't have taken it because it's wrong to bet," she replied, watching her dad leave the podium. "Plus it _is_ Tony- expect the unexpected."

Ivy laughed before bounding up to greet her dad at the door. "Guess what!"

Her dad smiled at her as he walked further into the room, "Ms. Potts fainted and the Agent is freaking out?"

Ivy laughed when Ms. Pepper yelled, "Tony Stark _I_ did not faint!"

"No! I won a bet against Mr. Agent," Ivy informed him as they made their way out the back door. "He and Ms. Pepper didn't believe me when I told them you weren't going to read the note cards that Mr. Agent so nicely made up for you. He probably worked for a couple of hours to make the alibi and get the people to agree with it."

"Well, I never," he exclaimed, before looking at Ms. Pepper. "Why didn't you stop this gambling? Don't you know it only takes one time and then you're hooked for life? I don't approve of you letting my only little girl start up bad habits so early. I think I might have to replace you, Ms. Potts."

Ms. Pepper jawed had dropped when her dad first started talking before she snapped it shut, looking angry. "_You_ never! You're the one who goes gambling as much as he can! Don't make me remind you about that award Mr. Rhodes was going to personally give you but _you_ were in the casino!"

Ivy's dad just flapped a hand at her making her look like she about to hit him. "So how much did you wheedle out of the Agent?"

Ivy grinned at Ms. Pepper. It was fun to rile her up sometime, Ivy didn't do it but she loved how Ms. Pepper reacted to her dad sometimes. She had to know that her dad did stupid things; it wasn't a secret or anything. "A hundred."

"Only a hundred? What were you betting? I know you left your wallet at home."

Ivy smirked at him, "I betted a hundred too. Oh, it was your money that I betted." She gave a crackle at him before hopping in the car.


	9. Chapter 9

_I would once again thank everyone for their reviews. I would also like to thank everyone who had either put a story alert or have favorited this story. I literally have a good two hundred if not more in my e-mail and I would like to thank all of you so much. _

_Another sad chapter as a warning  
_

_Read, Enjoy, and please Review :)  
_

Six months later and Ivy was standing next to Blaise as they watched her dad fly into the arena with the half-naked women dancing behind him. Ivy rolled her eyes as she watched them; typical women who were probably hoping to get in her dad's pants. Gross was all Ivy could think.

Ivy looked to Blaise to see him staring in detached amusement. He was wearing designer blue jeans with a white t-shirt and a black North face jacket and black vans. Ivy didn't know really anyone else who could scream causal but filthy rich than her best friend. Ivy was wearing black jeans and a black tank that said 'Stark Inc.' with a white plain hoodie over and white vans. She had her hair pulled back into a bun.

Ivy could barely see anything as mostly everyone taller than her; she was still 4'8" while Blaise shot up two more inches. She could only thank that there was large screens to show everything.

She could only scoff as some idiot a little in front of her shouted out to her dad, "Blow something up!"

Ivy felt Blaise wrap an arm around her as more people pushed forward. She was standing in front of him already and she couldn't believe how many times she's been pushed. If Blaise hadn't come with her she probably would have been trampled already. Ivy felt Blaise's head dip down to her ear, "Let's get out of here! I've got a crazy headache and knowing our luck if we don't leave now I'm sure we'll bump into your dad."

Ivy just nodded her head, allowing him to pull her along as he pushed other people out of the way. When they reached the door way she looked back to see the image of her dad walking away with her grandfather's image behind him.

It gave her chills.

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Ivy stopped Blaise as they were about to pass a restroom, "I've gotta pee, be right out."

He nodded as he let go of her hand and went to stand by lightening pole. Ivy hurried into the relatively empty bathroom. She had just walked into a stall and was putting the protective cover on the seat when she heard a couple of women come in and enter stalls. She rolled her eyes when she heard them gushing about her dad.

"Did you see how he just flew in!" one woman exclaimed. "He's so hoooot!"

"Totally yummy!" the other one agreed.

Ivy rolled her eyes before adding her two cents, "I don't know about that. He's about average, more on the low end. Not hot or yummy."

One of the women gasped, "What do you mean! He's the hottest bachelor out there! I would totally marry him!"

Ivy just shook her head as she pulled her jeans back up while hearing the women's other friend reply, "I don't know about that. I rather just have him screw me. If I got married to him I would probably send his little brat to a boarding school."

Ivy froze.

"Lisa you don't even know what the girl is like. For all you know she's an angel."

"Yea, right. How many times have you seen her? She probably thinks she's too good for the rest of us."

Ivy flushed her toilet and made sure to hurry up before the other two came out. She just reached the door when one of the stalls opened up and she heard a gasp. She turned her head and saw a pretty twenty year old standing there in jeans and a low cut top.

She quickly went to Blaise who met her half-way. She shook her head when he looked at her so he nodded and grabbed her hand to drag back to his home.

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It was about an hour later that Ivy was sitting comfortably on Blaise's bed in her pink sleeping pants and black long-sleeved shirt. She was just waiting for Blaise to return to his room so they could eat the snack he was bringing and go to bed when her phone went off. His room was around the same size as hers was. He had a queen sized canopy bed straight across the door leading to the hall way. There were was a night stand on each side of the bed, two doors on the left of the bed leading to a large bathroom and large walk-in-closet. In between the doors was a dresser. On the right side of the bed was a leather love seat and matching chairs surrounding a fireplace with a bookcase next to it. Towards the end of the same wall was french doors leading out to a small balcony. His room was done in different shades of blue and silver.

She sighed when she heard the music of 'Back in Black'. "I really wish you would stop changing your ringtone, Dad."

He just laughed, "How is it going at Blaise's? Did you watch the expo on T.V.?"

"Yes, I watched the half-naked women parade behind you," she sighed. "Are you on your way home?"

"Ah, no I'm not actually. I'm headed to Washington now with Happy and Pep is meeting us out there," was the sheepish reply.

Ivy fell backwards, so her back was on the bed and she was looking at the top of Blaise's canopy. "…and you're now calling me, at 1a.m. to tell me that I'm going to be home alone tomorrow?"

"Sorry, Doll, but I've got a summons to go before the Senate in the morning."

"Well that should be fun for you," was her dry reply.

"Hey, don't be like that. I'll be home tomorrow after the meeting, I'll probably be home before you if you hang out with Blaise and Susan."

"Whatever," she rolled her eyes.

"I'll bring you back a gift for you. How's that sound?" Ivy could just see the grin on his face. "I'll get a mug for you, with your name on it or maybe a big 'I Love D.C.' t-shirt."

"Daaaad, don't do that," she whined. She should have kept her mouth shut.

"I'll see you tomorrow, Ivy. Get to bed soon and behave for the Zabini's."

"Love you, Daddy."

"Love you, too, Ivy,"

Ivy just hanged up the phone as Blaise walked back into the room holding two bowls of vanilla ice-cream. "We'll be able to see my dad in Washington tomorrow on the T.V. He gets to go before the Senate."

Blaise laughed as he handed her a bowl of ice-cream, "At least we'll have a show while we're eating breakfast."

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Ivy flooed home around six at night and her dad was right in being home before her. She was still wearing the pajamas that she wore last night (her and Blaise decided to just bum around) She walked out of the laundry room that was hidden under the stairs in the basement, next to the lab. She was about to walk past to go to her room but she saw her dad just looking at his computer screen. She paused to look at him- he looked so sad. More sad than what she's ever seen. She dropped her bag next to the stairs before walking to put her access code into the panel. When the door opened she walked to where her dad was sitting. As she got closer she noticed that while he had his focus on the screen in the middle while the other screens were playing some home videos of her younger years.

"Hi, Daddy," she said, as she stood next to him. He was wearing black slacks, blue long sleeved shirt with a black shirt over and his black boots. She turned her attention to the screen next to her. Ms. Pepper had followed them to the park and just videotaped them playing on the playground. Ivy had just turned eight. She smiled as she watched her younger self run from her dad just to be picked up and twirled around.

"Hello, Ivy," her dad replied, without looking at her.

"What's the matter?" Ivy asked. She frowned as she watched her dad shut down the computer screens.

"Nothing the matter, Doll," he smiled at her as he stood up to walk out of the lab. She hesitated in following him as she looked at the books on his desk. "Come along, Ivy. I need to talk to you about something."

Ivy walked even more slowly as she followed him upstairs. She heard him in the kitchen doing something before he called out, "Go on up to your room I'll be up there in a few minutes."

"OK," she called, as she walked up the stairs and into her room. She dropped her bag next to her desk before going into the bathroom to wash her face and take her contacts out. She heard her dad enter her room just as she slipped her glasses on her face. She took a deep breathe. Hopefully her dad didn't find out that she and Blaise left his house last night to go to the Expo. If he had found out, Ivy shuddered to think about how long she'd be grounded for and how long it would be before she saw Blaise again outside of classes.

Ivy started to bite her bottom lip when she walked out of the bathroom and her dad was already sitting in the rocking chair putting a tray on the ottoman that had two mugs of what smelled liked honey milk. The only time she had honey milk was when she was upset, need comforting, about to be told bad news which led to the first two reasons and if she needed help sleeping. She saw that her teddy bear was sitting on the floor next to the chair and got even more nervous; her dad was pulling out all her soothing techniques. She walked towards him and picked up her mug while her dad settled more into the chair and grabbed the other mug. Once he was settled she plopped into his lap without spilling any milk. They sat in silence till they were about half-way through their drink and her dad set his mug on the ground next to the chair.

Ivy watched him as he sighed and dropped his head back to rest on the chair. She leaned forward to set her mug back on the tray before turning back to face her dad. She didn't think this was about her sneaking out with Blaise last night; it looked like it was way worse. Plus her dad never brought out soothing techniques when he was about to ground her.

Ivy stared at his face till he opened his eyes and stared back. She felt him wrap his arms around her and pick her up slightly as he re-adjusted himself on the chair. "You know I love you, right, Ivy?" he finally asked.

Ivy sucked her bottom lip back in and nodded.

He frowned and poked her cheek and she let her abused lip go. "You know how I tried my hardest to get back home when I was captured? To come home for you?"

"Yes," Ivy whispered.

"You know that I'll always try my hardest and fight till my last breath to return?" He was staring intently into her eyes, which were slowly filling up with tears. "That I would exhaust all my resources before I threw in the towel?"

"…..yes. What's going on, Daddy?" Ivy asked, trying to calm her racing heart.

"I want you to know that I do love you and no matter how many stupid and immature things I do, I'll always have you in my best interests," he quietly said, as he started to rock the chair and gave her the teddy bear.

Ivy brought the bear up to her nose and breathed in the calming smell of lavender. She nodded to her dad as she looked at him. He looked almost defeated but she knew he wasn't; at least not yet.

Her dad pulled her tighter against his chest and rocked the chair a little faster. "It seems through the use of the arc reactor of it helping me stay alive is also slowly killing me. The palladium core is releasing toxins. "

"Then find a replacement!" she burst out, trying to pull away from his chest but he easily kept her there.

"I've been trying every thing in every type of combination and they won't work."

"Make a new one up then!" she snapped. "You're smart enough to do that!"

"Jarvis and I are looking everything that we can," he told her. He eased up on holding her so he could look into her eyes. Which were red and filling with more tears; he took her glasses off as he could see them smudging. "It also, seems that with the use of the Iron Man suit it has made the symptoms worse and furthering along faster."

"Then stop using it! You don't need it," Ivy cried, barely making him out without her glasses and her eyes tearing up.

"I'm doing the best that I can in this situation, Ivy. I'm not going to fully quite using the suit," he started to rub his hand up and down her back. "I'm going to use the suit when I need to."

Ivy couldn't believe this was happening, "…but you used it for fun the other night! You flew into the expo using the suit. You used it even though you knew you were progressing your symptoms! You had to know because you said that you and Jarvis had already searched into most elements. Why would you use it if you knew?"

"Ivy, calm down, now! We need to stay calm or we won't get any further with the problem. Yes, I am dying." Ivy gave a loud sob at those words but her dad just kept on talking. "Based on my calculations I have a good few more months before I do die and I'll make sure you are completely covered. I won't leave this world without making sure you will fine and that you can make your own decisions."

Ivy just sobbed even louder and hugged herself to him by wrapping her arms tightly around his neck. "You can't leave!"

"Ivy, look at me," when Ivy made eye contact her dad continue. "This may be harsh but if it wasn't for the arc reactor I would have died when I got captured. With this device I was able to spend an extra year with you. I was able to put everything into order for you. That way no one can dispute anything and take you back to Europe."

Ivy just buried her head back into his shoulder and cried. Her dad just held her closer and rocked them both. Ivy felt a few warm drops of water on her head and when she realized that her _dad_ was crying she cried some more. And held him even tighter that she was sure he was going to have nail indents on his shoulders.

She fell asleep in his arms with him humming and rocking.


	10. Chapter 10

_Thanks for all the reviews :)_

_Once again I don't own any of the Iron Men movies or Harry Potter.  
_

_There is some dialogue from Iron Man 2 in here but not a lot.  
_

_I am happy to say that I just finished the Avengers 'Arc' and am now started on I guess you could say the Harry Potter 'Arc'.  
_

_Read, Enjoy and Please Review :)  
_

* * *

The following week Ivy stuck to home as much as possible. She didn't go to her friend's homes and stuck as close as possible to her dad as she could. Instead of doing her homework in her room or at the kitchen counter she would go find her dad in the lab and sit in a chair at his desk while he worked with Jarvis. When she was done with homework she would read ahead for her classes; more than what she had already done. Ivy tried to be more attentive to her dad when he needed things and made sure he ate every time she did. Ivy knew Ms. Pepper found this to be slightly odd but she didn't confront them about the new behavior as she just got promoted to being C.E.O. of Stark.

This is why when Ivy found out they going to Monaco she threw a fit when she had to stay home because she still had school to go to.

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Ivy was sitting on her dad's bed watching him pack clothes into a suit case, pouting.

"Ivy, go pack your clothes for the next few days. You're not to come back here alone unless Candace brings you. Which she won't have to do if you have everything _packed,_" Ivy knew he was getting annoyed when he said it in his 'I'm your father and YOU will do as your told' voice.

Ivy just frowned and curled into a ball at the foot of the bed. "I don't understand why I can't go. You've let me miss school before for your business trips!"

Her dad scowled at her as he zipped his suitcase closed, "You'll also notice, each and every time that happened, you didn't have _finals_! Now get up and go pack before I pack for you."

Ivy just scoffed and closed her eyes. Her eyes, however, flew right back up and she let out a yell as her dad bodily picked her up and slung her over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. "Daaadddyy!"

Ivy let out a shriek as her dad threw her on her bed and proceeded to tickle her till she was red in the face. Ivy was still giggling as her dad walked over to her closet and came back out with her overnight tote. "Can you please pack for the rest of the week for me?"

Ivy looked at her dad before smirking at him which just made him wary, "I'll pack and quite complaining if you bring me something back from Monaco. Actually you don't have to even buy it in Monaco."

Her dad just looked at her, "What do you want?"

"I just want a Ragamuffin," she grinned at him when he let a groan. She had been trying for years to get a cat. Ivy had been nine when they had come across a pet store and they had a Ragamuffin relaxing on the counter just soaking up the attention from customers. Her dad had told her that she was too young for an animal by herself, especially when she had school during the day and he wasn't about to watch a cat then. Instead he bought her a couple of fish which died a month after she had them.

"No. Now pack or you won't even get a cup with your name on it," he said as he walked out the room.

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Salem students had the choice of eating outside or inside the Food Hall, unless the weather was horrible outside. Only over the age students, seventeen in the magical world, could leave during lunch times and come back for their next class. Ivy and Blaise had decided to eat dinner so they could wait for Susan and Ivy had been enjoying her dinner with Blaise outside when the last person she wanted to see come up to their table. Ivy was in her school uniform but she had a large Black Sabbath hoodie thrown on with her hair back in a french braid tied with a white bow. Blaise was wearing the male form of the uniform.

"Hope you didn't have any plans of your father returning in more than one piece, Stark!"

His name was Adam Smith and he thought he was the greatest person in the world. He was a typical red haired guy with brown eyes; half the girls in the school thought he was most gorgeous guy there was. Even Susan had thought the same till he purposely fought Ivy when her dad went missing. Thankfully for Ivy she didn't have any classes with the guy since he was two years ahead of them.

Ivy rolled her eyes at Blaise who just smirked back at her before turning his head to look at Smith, "What are you on about now, Smith?"

Smith scowled at the both of them, "What too good to talk to me, Stark? Have to have your lap-dog talk for you?"

Ivy sighed as she wiped her mouth with her napkin before looking at him, "Could you just say what you're clearly dying to say. See, we came out here to look at the beautiful grounds and you're messing it up."

Smith turned red, "We'll see who'll be laughing when your father comes back in a body bag. He's in Monaco, right?"

Ivy stiffened up, "What of it, Smith? I don't think it's healthy when you start to follow where people are going. You should probably get some help about that."

"Look you little, Bitch! You think you're so great because your father is Iron Man but a few hours ago he got his ass kicked. I was watching it during lunch; some guy was beating him and he wasn't _even_ wearing a shirt. What does that say about your _great_ father?" Smith looked smug as he said that but Ivy didn't care. She already saw Blaise get up and into his face.

Ivy quickly walked out of the Food Hall to go to her locker where she left her bag and robes. Ivy didn't want to lug around her school stuff anymore more than she had to and left everything in her locker; Blaise was with her, Susan was trying to get extra help from their Charm's Professor on a project and Ivy knew that her dad was busy. She quickly put her thumb against the pad on the locker and waited for it to pop open before grabbing her cell out of her school bag.

"Jarvis, what is happening in Monaco!" She asked when unlocked the screen.

"Mr. Stark fought an unknown man, who seems to have an arc reactor too," was the quick reply. "He is fine, Miss. Stark. The unknown man was put into police custody and your father will be leaving Monaco in the morning."

"Find the best quality video of the fight please," Ivy requested even though she was already on main news cast channels.

Her screen changed to a full screen of the fight that happened between her dad and a man who was wearing an orange jumpsuit and had two whips. She stood, frozen as she watched the fight. She just leaned against the locker next to hers and stayed there even after the fight ended. She looked up when she noticed Blaise standing next to her.

"Come on, Ivy. We'll go to my home and we'll find out more there. Mum probably already got a call from Tony," Blaise consoled her. He grabbed her bag, shut her locker, grabbed her hand and walked about five lockers down to his to get his bag.

"What about Susan? She's still in detention," Ivy didn't slow down even when she asked it. She let Blaise pull her to the door of the school so they walk down the pathway to the gate to get a portkey to the Western Board.

"I'll text her when we get home," was the distracted reply as he waited for Mrs. Anderson to get their portkey ready. Mrs. Anderson worked for the school for a couple of decades and she knew all the students and who went to each time zone. She was an older lady, with white blonde hair that was turning silver and she had the biggest blue eyes.

"Have a good night, Blaise and Ivy," Mrs. Anderson was nice to them even before she got to know them. She didn't base her expectations on them just because of how their parents acted.

"Good night, Mrs. Anderson," they replied at the same time, before touching the pouch that was their portkey.

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Ivy watched as Blaise walked back into his room holding a tray that had a couple of mugs, a bottle of honey, a pitcher she knew was filled with milk (already warmed up) and a familiar glass bottle.

"Where did you get that?" she pointed to the bottle, while scooting over so he could sit down next to her with the tray in front of them.

"Where you think I got it from?" he asked, pouring milk into both their mugs. He reached for the glass bottle and poured some into his mug before holding it over hers. "Want some? You'll be out in no time."

Ivy stared at the Whiskey bottle as Blaise shook it a little, "How do you know that'll knock me out?"

"While _your_ dad gave you warmed up honey milk, _my_ mum gave me warmed up whiskey milk. She said it would knock me out not even a minute after I was done drinking it. It's completely safe, Ivy."

Ivy took a deep breath before nodding her head while Blaise gave a smirk and pour a little less than what he had in his own mug.

Blaise took a drink before Ivy, "Did you talk to Ms. Pepper?"

"Yea," Ivy took a small sip of her knock up milk. She could feel the whiskey burn slightly but she enjoyed the taste with the milk. "Ms. Pepper is furious with daddy. Daddy got something when she told him he wasn't allowed to. Plus he was being difficult when she forced him to the hospital."

"What did he get?" Blaise moved the tray off the bed and crawled up to the head board and under the blankets still holding his mug.

Ivy followed and made sure not to spill anything. "Some new assistant, a notary that had helped them sign the company over to Ms. Pepper."

Blaise laughed. "Wonder if she knows what she is getting into?"

Ivy snorted as she took another sip, already feeling drowsy, "She'll know after a day like the one they had at the race."

Ivy put her mug on the nightstand before settling down while Blaise snorted and dimmed the lights down. She snuggled against him and quickly fell asleep with him wrapping an arm around her back.

10101010101010101010

Ivy rushed from her last class to her locker, leaving her friends behind. She was already packing the books she needed for her homework and taking her robe off before putting the same hoodie as the day before on when Susan came to the locker right next to hers, frowning.

Ivy saw her when her head went through, "What?"

Susan just glared, "Couldn't wait for your friends, Ivy?"

Ivy frowned as Blaise walked up to them, "Leave off of her Susan. You can't say that if your aunt didn't just get home after being in a different country and attacked you wouldn't rush home."

Susan just sniffed, "Anyways, what did the Headmaster want with you?" Susan turned back to her locker.

Right before lunch her professor had told her that the headmaster wanted her to go to his office after class and have a small lunch with him. Students were only asked to have lunch with the headmaster when he had to tell them something in important. Ivy shoved her robe more into the locker and grabbed her bag. "I'll tell you guys later. I want to tell my dad first and talk with him about it. If I have time tonight I'll give you a call later."

Ivy dashed off ignoring Susan calling her back. She jogged to Mrs. Anderson who smiled when she saw Ivy and handed her the portkey. Ivy dropped the used portkey into the used box in the plain room. It had a door leading out, a couple of couches next the door and a large fireplace that already had a large fire going. She grabbed some floo powder as some a couple of girls two years younger than her portkeyed in and she let the fire whisk her away.

Ivy stumbled a little when she was spit out of the fireplace in the laundry room. She stood still for a minute, to gain her balance back. She looked around the small room. The door was opposite of the large fireplace, the washer and dryer were to her left and there were several empty baskets to her right. She rushed out the door and dropped her bag at the end of the stairs as she peeked in the lab to see if her dad was in there. Seeing no sign of him she jogged up the stairs to see Ms. Pepper on the phone sitting next to a pretty dark red head with pale skin and green eyes.

The new woman looked at her in surprise while Ms. Pepper smiled at her and putting her hand around the mouth piece of the phone, said, "It's good to see you, Ivy. Your dad is upstairs in the shower."

Ivy smiled and bounded up stairs to her dad's room. She pushed the door open and hearing the shower still going she went and sat in a chair.

She waited impatiently, with her knee bouncing, for another ten minutes. She couldn't wait to see him and talk to him about what her headmaster told her that afternoon. She jumped up when she saw the bathroom door open and he walked out in just blue jeans with one hand rubbing a towel on his head and the other holding his shirt.

Ivy tackled him before he even saw her, "Daddy!" She crushed him in a hug and looked at him to see him drop the towel around his shoulders, smiling back at her. She noticed the bruise/cut under his left eye but she didn't mention it.

"Aren't you a sight for sore eyes?" he hugged her back before pulling back to put his hooded long-sleeve shirt on.

"They look sore. Your new PA is pretty, what's her name?" Ivy asked as she sat back down.

Her dad walked back into the bathroom to put his towel away and he came back with a comb, "Her name is Natalie Rushman."

Ivy nodded; her knee was bouncing slightly which her dad noticed after a couple of minutes of silence. "Have something to tell me, Ivy?"

She nodded again before letting a frustrated sound out. "I left it downstairs by the lab."

Her dad snorted and shook his head, "Come on, I was headed in that direction any way."

Ivy skipped ahead of him and raced into the kitchen to grab some grapes from the fridge to munch on. While she was cleaning them she head her dad descend the stairs and telling Ms. Pepper and Ms. Rushman that he didn't want to be disturbed before heading to the lab. Ivy rushed after him with the large bowl of grapes, bouncing down after. He was holding the door open as she went to get her bag. Ivy dropped her bag in her normal spot on the couch and grabbed the letter that her Headmaster sent with her to give to her dad.

Her dad sat in the chair that was next to the couch, took the letter from her and proceeded to read it while she ate her grapes. Ivy sat down, on the edge of her seat, just watching him read. She could see the pleased and proud smile cross his face as he got further along in the letter.

Her dad set the letter on the table in front of them and stood up in front of her, making her get up. He drew her into a hug were he just squeezed. "I'm so proud of you, Ivy."

"Thanks, Daddy. I don't know what I want to do though," Ivy said as she was released. "I don't know if I want to stay with my friends, graduate with them or go ahead and graduate early. No one has graduated early for a good sixty years and that person ended up the as the Head of the Wizards council!"

Her dad looked down at the letter again, "You should do what you want. I'm not going to make the decision for you. You'll have friends no matter where you go, Ivy. You might lose some but you'll probably make new ones. And if your friends don't agree with that then they probably don't have your best interests in mind and you don't need them in your life."

Ivy nodded as she sat back down on the couch before slumping over and closing her eyes.

"Just think about it, Babe. It's up to you but remember that you might be bored with classes if you stay with your age group."

Ivy heard him walk towards his desk. She wasn't sure what she was going to do. Blaise and Susan would support her no matter what she decided to do. She would love to skip a grade and graduate early. If she skipped a grade she would take her O.W.L.S and finals a couple of weeks before classes started in September. She wouldn't be bored out of her mind sitting with her class. She would be able to start a job or apprenticeship….

"…search is complete…."

"…name was Ivan Vanko…"

"…severed fifteen years in prison…."

Lab door was open and someone walked in.

"…get upstairs and get on top of the situation….."

"…trying to…to stop them from rolling tanks…"

"…you ok?"

"…you had this in your body?"

"…you looking at?"

"…you…gunslinger act…you don't have to do this alone."

"…know exactly what I'm doing."

Ivy forced herself up after hearing pits and pieces of what Jarvis, Mr. Rhodey, and her dad were saying. She ended up rolling off the couch, "…Ow."

She got up to see her dad sitting at his desk, drinking something out of his bottle and Mr. Rhodey leaning against it with his back to her. She crept closer to them before saying, loudly, "Hi, Mr. Rhodey, haven't seen you in a while."

She smiled when she saw him twitch slightly. Mr. Rhodey turned and smiled at her, "Hello, Ivy, how have you've been?"

Ivy could tell he was still annoyed with her dad but that wasn't anything new to her. "I've been great! Guess what?"

Mr. Rhodey seemed to think about it before asking, "You're going out with the guy friend of yours?"

Ivy busted out laughing as her dad's head shot up and turned to look at her with his face twisted in horror, "No, you're not allowed to date till your 30, at the very least!"

"No! I'm not going out with Blaise, he's my best friend, not my boyfriend," Ivy declared. Blaise was the person she went to for everything- advice, to vent, and she even made him go clothes shopping with her. "It'll be before I'm 30 that I'll go out, Daddy. You do know that most of my friends are going out with someone, right?"

"You know what they say about best friends and boyfriends/girlfriends," Mr. Rhodey said as her dad hissed at him to shut up about boyfriends.

Ivy looked at her dad concerned because he looked really pale and had a slight sheen of sweat on his face. "No boyfriends or girlfriends. Yet," she ignored her dad's squawk of protest, "besides no one has really caught my attention."

Mr. Rhodey smiled at her, "Well, whoever does catch it is going to be one lucky guy who has to put up with a lot of people."

Ivy smiled at that. It was true after all; she had her dad, Blaise, Ms. Pepper, Mr. Rhodey, and not to even mention Blaise's mum. "You still didn't guess right."

Mr. Rhodey just waved his hand at her making her pout before sighing, "Fine be that way. I get to skip a _whole_ grade year at my school! The last person to do that was sixty years ago!"

Mr. Rhodey swept her into a hug, "Congratulations Ivy! This calls for a mini celebration. Ice-cream here we come!"

Mr. Rhodey swung her over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes and walked towards the stairs with her dad following behind.

"Pepper get the ice-cream out, Natalie get the bowls and spoons, and Tony get the candy out!" Mr. Rhodey told the women who were looking at them in disbelief and her dad rolled his eyes before going into the kitchen mentioning Natalie to follow.

Ms. Pepper stood up, "Why are we eating ice-cream?"

"I get to skip a grade year at my school!" Ivy shouted out from her upside down position.

Ms. Pepper gasped, "Oh my God! Ivy that's great!" She leaned down and smacked a kiss onto her face before hurrying into the kitchen ahead of them.

Ivy was put down onto a chair and she was able to watch the most important adults in her life help her celebrate.


	11. Chapter 11

_Once again thank yous to everyone who review, favorited, and put story alerts up for this story. It is a great feeling to see so many (498 followers! That made my head spin slightly)! _

_Read, Enjoy and Review :)  
_

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It was lunch time and Ivy was already sitting next to Susan at a table outside enjoying the second to last day of school, waiting for Blaise come.

"So are you going to tell us what the Headmaster wanted with you the other day?" Susan asked as she started to eat her salad.

Ivy nodded her head as she put a forkful of the grilled chicken salad into her mouth. She swallowed before saying, "Yea, I'm going to tell you and Blaise at the same time so I don't have to repeat myself."

Susan let a huge sigh, "Why not tell me now and then we can tell him? We don't even know how long he's going to be."

Ivy frowned, "We should wait for Blaise."

"Come, Ivy. You never wait for me when you have something to say. You two even ditched me the other day!"

Ivy winced, "Fine."

Susan let out a squeal.

"You know how I've been studying a lot this year? To keep myself busy," Ivy asked, to which Susan nodded rapidly. "Well the Headmaster wanted to tell me that since my work have been above par since the beginning of the year that he and my teachers sat down and talked. They said that if I wanted I could go up a year. I would be a grade ahead of my year."

Susan frowned, "But how is that possible? I don't know how anyone would be able to skip a whole year of school. What about O.W.L.S.?"

"Well I would take my O.W.L.S at the beginning of August and I would get the results back about a week before school starts so I would know what classes I would take. I would have to wait for my final results from this year's test, some of which I still have to take."

"So you're just going to skip a whole year of school? What about Blaise and me?" Susan was looking mad, which Ivy didn't understand. If Susan was the one to skip, Ivy would be excited for her.

"I'll still be taking classes here and I'm pretty sure we would be able to take the same muggle classes together. I would still hang out with you and Blaise at lunch and after school." Ivy stood up to go to Susan's side when it looked like she was about to cry. Ivy was a little hurt when Susan stood up and stormed to go back in, only grabbing her school bag.

Ivy jumped slightly when she felt a hand wrap around hers. "What's the matter, Ivy? Why did Susan storm out?"

Ivy leaned into Blaise before going back to her seat with him following as he didn't let her hand go. "I told her why the Headmaster wanted to see me yesterday. I wanted to tell you both together but she wouldn't let up so I told her."

She felt Blaise's other hand go up and down her back, "Well, what the Headmaster want with you? Had to be something big to make Susan upset."

"He told me since I've been above par with all my classes that I would be able to go up a school grade starting next year as long as I passed all of my finals this year. That I would take my O.W.L.S at the beginning of August and have the results back before the school years begins to get my classes set up." Ivy tensed after a few seconds of silence from her best friend.

She jumped when she felt him throw himself at her to give a tight hug, "That's great Ivy! That's such an honor. It hasn't happened in over half a century!"

Ivy grinned at him and turned to go back to her chicken salad when she caught sight of Susan's lunch. She pulled back her hand that was going towards her fork when she heard Blaise sigh.

"What?" Ivy asked when she heard him and saw him get up to go to the other side, right where Susan was sitting.

"Eat your lunch. I don't need your dad hounding me for not making you eat," Blaise was packing up Susan's lunch and put it next to his school bag before pulling out his own packed lunch.

Ivy gave a playful scowl to him but she did pick up her fork to continue eating.

Ivy was about half way through her salad and Blaise was on his second turkey sandwich when one of their year mates ran over to Ivy. She was brown haired, brown eyed girl who was almost as tall Blaise and was on the Quidditch team.

"Hey Ivy, Blaise," she nodded to him then proceeded to focus on Ivy. "Do you have a," here she got into Ivy personal space and whispered in her ear, "tampon or pad. No one I asked has one and I don't know where Nurse Jenny is."

Ivy smirked a little but nodded her head before turning to her bag to discreetly grab a tampon out. "Here you go, Ashley."

"Thanks, Ivy, you're a life savior," she grabbed the tampon from Ivy but proceed to sit down next to her. "Did you hear what happened at Hogwarts?"

Blaise rolled his eyes but nodded his head while Ivy shook hers. "Half the castle got destroyed. The last task was last night and my cousin was there watching when it happened. A lot of parents are going to be angry; the school was lucky that everyone was at the task and not inside."

Ivy furrowed her eye brows, looking at the both of them, "What happened?"

Blaise spoke up before Ashley, who pouted, "A couple of the creatures that were in the last task got loose and went straight for the castle and destroyed a good portion of it. My cousin flooed last night complaining because his whole dormitory was destroyed and everything in it. I can just imagine all the dead familiars and how upset people are going to be."

Ashley nodded her head, her normal grin gone, "My cousin doesn't even care that Diggory won the tournament for Hogwarts. My cousin lost her cat and her year mates lost their animals too. I wouldn't want to be the people in charge of the tournament. The clean-up for the school is going to be horrible."

Ivy snorted, "They'll probably find a way out of it and blame the handlers. This is partly their fault too. The school will most likely have everything up and running before the year starts again in the fall."

Ashley nodded before standing up, "Thanks for the you-know-what, Ivy! See you tomorrow for finals."

Blaise nodded to her as Ivy waved.

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It was the following weekend, the same weekend as her dad's birthday and Ivy was packing up her overnight tote to go to Blaise's house after the party. Ivy knew the party was going to go on for a good while and she didn't want to stay there the whole time. She knew that something was going to go wrong and she wasn't sure if she wanted to be there when it happened.

Ivy had planned to go to Susan's but Ivy hadn't been able to get a hold of her since the end of school. Ivy even tried to floo over there to only be told that Susan had left to visit relatives in Europe. Ivy was hurt that Susan hadn't even said she was leaving or even call back. Blaise told Ivy that she was just being a stuck up snob, which didn't make Ivy feel any better about it. So instead of going to Susan's she was going to go to Blaise's for the weekend after going to the party.

Ivy was wearing a black and purple halter fit and flare dress. She had her hair down and slightly curled along with wearing black, five and half inch, platform espadrille sandal.

The party was already in full swing when Ivy walked down to the main floor. Ivy sneered when she saw the slutty looking women as she walked down to the laundry room. After shoving her tote by the door she had Jarvis relock the door before making her way back up stairs. She didn't know how many times she had people she didn't know come up to her, it was mainly women there. It wasn't till she saw Ms. Pepper walk through the door with a present that she released a sigh before going to her.

"Ivy!" Ms. Pepper exclaimed when she saw her. "Do you know where your dad is?"

Ivy rolled her eyes before pointing to the main room, "In there, already smashed as hell."

She watched as Ms. Pepper walked into that direction, "Watch out when you go in there!"

Ms. Pepper looked back with a confused look but Ivy had just spotted Mr. Rhodey's car pull up and she walked out there to meet him.

She saw him put his cell away as he handed his keys to one of the valets before turning towards the house.

She smiled at him and gave him a hug when he reached her, "Ivy, you look wonderful tonight."

Ivy flushed slightly, "Thanks Mr. Rhodey."

Ivy stayed by the door as Mr. Rhodey walked towards Ms. Pepper who was walking towards the door quickly. Ivy watched him stop her and then follow her towards the main room. Ivy followed slower and stayed to the outer parts of the crowd. She didn't need to see her dad act like a drunken fool in his Iron Man suit. Why he thought it would be cool to wear it for his birthday she'll never know and nor did she want to know.

Ivy thought she about died when her dad told everyone the most asked question and then showed how he does it. She couldn't believe he just peed in his suit. She was slightly grateful when Ms. Pepper tried to step in but that didn't go so well. Ivy stepped back a little bit more when she saw her dad accidentally shoot at the glass by the stairs. She couldn't believe that happened and looking at Mr. Rhodey and Ms. Pepper they didn't either. She scowled when she saw a dumb blonde throw up a glass bottle and have him shoot at it. Ivy didn't think she would ever drink if this was how everyone acted; it was just ridiculous.

Ivy looked in disbelief when Mr. Rhodey showed up in War Machine. She followed Ms. Pepper as she was leaving only to run into Natalie. Ivy stumbled as her dad and Mr. Rhodey fell through upstairs and into the kitchen. Ivy watched as Mr. Happy got Ms. Pepper out, Natalie disappear while she went downstairs to the laundry room to floo to Blaise's home.

1111111111111111111111

After scaring Blaise by showing up when she did, she was going to send a text that she was on her way, they settled into his bed again with warmed-up milk, without the whiskey this time. Ivy checked her cell one last time before putting it on the nightstand along with her empty mug. She pulled on the night shirt she borrowed from Blaise, since she somehow didn't pack any night clothes. The night shirt was a plain black shirt and it was big on her; it ended up going to mid-thigh and Ivy only had on the black panties on underneath (she took off the strapless bra when she changed). She wasn't uncomfortable being this unclothed with Blaise seeing as he actually walked into her room when she was naked once. He was her only friend who saw her scars on her back and he would be the only one if she had any say in the matter. She watched him slip back under the blankets when he came back from the bathroom and snuggled up to him. She trusted him not to do anything with her, even if their parents did worry for a little bit; it didn't matter because Blaise wasn't interested in the female population. Ivy blamed his mother for that; seeing your own mother marry dozens of men would get tiresome and Blaise's mum always went for the handsome, wealthy ones. If her dad went after men all the time she would probably stick to her own gender.

1111111111111111111111

Ivy was making her way up the stairs wearing jean shorts, plain white t-shirt, and she was barefoot. She paused when she saw men in suits standing around the destroyed house. She followed the voice of her dad to the kitchen. She stared at the back of him; he looked less tense, not to beat up after last night. There was another man sitting next to him wearing all black. She stood there for a minute listening to them talk.

"What do you remember about your dad?" the bald, black man asked her dad. "Huh?"

"He was cold, calculating. He never told me he loved me or even told me he liked me. So it's a little tough for me to digest that you're telling me that he told you that the whole future was riding on me…."

Ivy jumped a little when she heard a couple of men with Mr. Agent walking behind her. She hurried to her dad's side to hear the last of what he was saying, "…his happiest day was to ship me off to boarding school."

"That's not true," the man with an eye patch on his left side turned to her. "This must be the lovely Ivy."

Her dad jumped up to hug her, "I thought you were going to stay at Blaise's for the day?"

Ivy hugged him back before looking at the two of them, "Well I wanted to make sure you were fine after last night."

"I'm good, Darling," she watched as Mr. Agent walked into the room with two other men carrying a huge suitcase, she guessed.

She watched as her dad stumble a little when the other man told him that her grandfather was a founding member of S.H.I.E.L.D. and if he was ok with the case. She jumped slightly when he moved in front of her. "Pleasure to meet you, Miss. Stark." He said, holding his hand out.

She shook hands with him, "Nice to meet you too, sir."

She watched as he walked away and her dad's PA, Natalie, walk up in a cat-suit. She turned to Mr. Agent when he stood next to her as Natalie was talking to her dad.

"I'm sorry Miss. Stark but would you be able to stay at your friend's house for the next few days."

Ivy blinked before turning to her dad, "Why?" she asked Mr. Agent.

"I need Mr. Stark to focus on what the Director gave him to look over. It might be better if you stayed at a friend's house."

Ivy nodded before turning to her dad. "I guess I can stay at Blaise's for the rest of the weekend. I'll give you a call later."

"Have fun, Darling."

1111111111111111111111

It was towards late afternoon when Ivy got a phone call from Mr. Agent. Ivy almost didn't answer if because she hated answering calls that were blocked or if she didn't recognize the number but she did answer, "Hello?"

"Hello, Miss. Stark, this is Mr. Agent," came the amused voice of Agent Coulson.

Ivy grinned, "Hello, Mr. Agent. What can I do for you?"

"I just wanted you to know that you're in the clear to come home whenever you want, Miss. Stark."

"Thank you and you can call me Miss. Ivy if you wanted, Agent Coulson."

"Of course, Miss. Ivy and you may call me Agent Phil, if you wanted. I've been resigned so it was nice to you once again."

"Stay safe and good bye, Agent Phil."

"Good bye."

1111111111111111111111

It was later that evening when Ivy was sprawled out on Blaise's floor, bored out of her mind. She heard Blaise step out of the bathroom, having just got done with his shower. She turned to look at him; he was wearing jeans, black button up and black vans.

She stood up all the way; he looked like he was dressed to go out. "Where are we going?"

"I thought you would want to go to the Expo tonight. That guy your dad hates has a slot tonight," Blaise grabbed her glittery purple vans and threw them towards her. "Should be fun to watch, don't you think?"

Ivy grinned as she shoved her bare feet into the shoes. "How are we going to get there?"

"I already asked Mother and she said that she'll take us there but we were going to have to find a way home." Blaise grabbed two hoodies out of his dresser and handed the white one to her while putting on the black one.

1111111111111111111111

"I don't know what's worse, his dancing or the cheerleaders." Ivy said to Blaise as they sat down to watch Hammer's presentation.

Ivy looked around at all the people in the room and spotted Ms. Pepper and the Agent sitting together a couple rows behind them. Ivy quickly turned her head when she heard Mr. Rhodey's name and saw War Machine pop up.

Ivy felt Blaise turn to her, "When did your dad give out suits?"

"At his birthday party, "Ivy said dryly. She tensed up when her dad flew into the expo and she heard Blaise groan at seeing him.

"We're so dead," she moaned, shrinking into her seat with Blaise following. "It was nice knowing you Blaise."

"Likewise, Ivy," Blaise whispered. "I'll make sure everyone knew the true Ivy Stark."

Ivy snorted, "I'll have you know he won't just kill me but you also."

Blaise went to reply but they both froze when Iron Man's head tilted in their direction. "Oh, Merlin. He saw us, Ivy!"

"I know he did!"

They both followed the crowd out of the building, when the drones went crazy, making sure to keep a hold of each other's hands. Ivy let Blaise pull her out of the Expo and across the street to a small café where he ordered some tea for the both of them.

"I hope he's OK," Ivy whispered when he handed her the tea.

"I'm sure he'll be fine, Ivy," Blaise sipped his tea. "Might as well just wait here for him, we'll have a way home now."

Ivy glared at him for snickering.

They only waited for forty minutes before Ivy's cell rang.

Ivy took a deep breath before answering, "Hi, Daddy whatcha doing?"

"Where are you at?" he didn't sound too happy.

"I'm with Blaise drinking some tea, why?" She knew she was grounded.

"Ivy, not the time to be playing around. You know you're grounded, so don't make it any worse than what it has to be," her dad sounded more annoyed than anything.

Ivy sighed, "We'll be standing outside a little café called, Heat and Spice."

"Be there soon." He didn't wait for a reply before hanging up.

Ivy stood up before walking to the door with Blaise following, "This should be fun. I guess I'll see you when school starts up. I might be able to get my computer and cell back in a month if I'm lucky."

Her dad dropped down from the sky before Blaise could reply; the suit looked banged up and muddy and he was pulling off the head of the suit to glare at them. While Ivy knew she was grounded she was pleased to not see her dad look so worried and less pale.

"Look at each other for as long as you can because you won't be seeing each other till September." He glared even harder at them as Blaise busted out laughing and Ivy snorted.

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_Tell me how you feel about Ivy's friends and don't worry I will be explaining more on the Hogwarts/Triwizard thing. It will play a part in the Harry Potter 'Arc'. _


	12. Chapter 12

_Thanks for all the reviews!_

_This is the longest chapter I have written but mind you I only have two-and-an-half chapters more written so far.  
_

_Everyone will find out what happens with the Harry Potter series and whats going on in Europe soon. I'm currently writing it out.  
_

_Read, Enjoy, and Review : )  
_

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Ivy waited as her dad came back into the tower after turning on the clean energy source. It had been two years since the fight with Ivan Vanko and they had finally settled into the Stark Tower. Ivy didn't think they needed a tower with their name on it since everyone _knew_ it was their tower but her dad wanted it. Ivy was just content with it; it was home away from home.

It had been about a week into the summer holiday for her and she couldn't wait for her grades on her N.E.W.T.S. She did end up taking her O.W.L.S in the summer before her fifth year and she did pass Charms, Potions, Herbology, History, Transfiguration, Defense, and Healing. The only ones she didn't pass were Ancient Runes and Astronomy; even then she was only a few points off. Since she had failed two of her O.W.L.S the school couldn't let her pass the school year and she would have to take them again with her school mates. Ivy would be forever thankful to Nurse Jenny, after she learned of Ivy's scores in the O.W.L.S that she did pass, asked if Ivy would become her apprentice. That she would be able to continue in the higher grade of her classes and still take the classes she didn't pass. Ivy would work in the Healing ward and help Nurse Jenny with the small things including cleaning, labeling, stocking, help with lesson plans for other classes and being able to watch her treat her classmates.

Ivy agreed; she always wanted to be a Healer since she was little, though at that time it was doctor. She loved the idea of helping people when they needed it and that she didn't freak out when there was blood like the other girls when she was younger. Ivy made sure she did everything and anything when Nurse Jenny wanted it. Ivy made sure to keep up with all her classes and even the side projects Nurse Jenny had for her. Ivy was supposed to be at the school the same hours that Nurse Jenny was but since Ivy lived on the Western Seaboard she was able to come in later but Ivy always stayed later, till after dinner period was done. She was also expected to come in on Saturdays to help out with re-stocking and learning more from Nurse Jenny. All her free periods and, most of the time, lunches were taken up with helping Nurse Jenny.

The N.E.W.T.S that Ivy had taken at the end of this school year were just the ones she passed for her O.W.L.S. Ivy knew if she passed these ones she would basically become full-time apprentice for Nurse Jenny. She would be working in the Healing Ward helping to take care of any accidents that came in and still learn, she would even teach the first year class and substitute for the second and third year classes. She wouldn't have to go on to work under someone else at a hospital, before most healers worked on their own; they were apprentices under someone who worked at a school, hospital, or small practice. Ivy knew she would go far from having an apprenticeship under Nurse Jenny. The only time she wouldn't be in the Healing Ward was when she left to go to her Ancient Runes class and she wouldn't leave school on Mondays, instead of Wednesdays, to go to her Astronomy class at night. Ivy didn't even need to go to her muggle classes since she passed all of them, with all A's, last year. She was officially graduated in the muggle world. Other than those two classes, Ancient Runes and Astronomy, she would become Nurse Jenny's shadow.

One of the reasons Ivy and her dad were living in New York, that and they could see how well their tower would stay up. Ivy would be going to school about mid-August to help set up the Healing Ward, class rooms for Healing class, and fine tune lesson plans with Nurse Jenny.

Ivy smiled from her spot on the couch as her dad walked in and made a drink for himself. There was a board game in front of her with some brownies and two cups of milk. They were going to play some board games to celebrate the tower and relax.

"Blaise said he was going to come here after he got back from Europe. I'll be able to meet his newest step-father," Ivy told her dad as he sat across from her, dealing out the money they needed for the game. She tugged her Black Sabbath hoodie over her white tank and it fell about an inch or so below her blue jean shorts.

Ivy was still best friends with Blaise and Susan. Susan had apologized on how she acted about a week after the incident at the expo. While Ivy was happy that she and Susan were good, she was still grounded till school started so she couldn't hang out with her till then. Her dad had stayed true to his word, she had been technically grounded till school started again but she was able to go school shopping with her friends in August. Ivy learned that Blaise had been grounded also; Blaise's mum had thought that Ivy's dad knew that they were going that night and that's why she had allowed the two fourteen year olds to go across country and stay by themselves. Of course, Blaise hadn't been grounded as long as her, if only because his mum was about to go in between husbands. Ivy loved Blaise like a brother and always would and she would continue to think of Susan as a best friend but over the last year of Ivy going to higher grade levels Susan slowly started to hang out with them less and other year mates more. Ivy didn't totally understand but she made sure Susan felt accepted every time she came around even if Blaise didn't.

"That's good, what's his name? Did you want to be the dog or hat?" her dad asked as he put piece down, the car. Her dad always chooses the car. He frowned when he looked up, "I thought I told you to stop stealing my hoodies. I know you have perfectly good ones, I should know since I'm the one buying them!"

Ivy smirked at him while grabbing the dog piece, "I like this one, its extra soft. That takes years to get them like this."

Before her dad could respond Jarvis told them that Agent Coulson was on the line.

"Tell him were out," her dad said before turning back to her. "Maybe if you wore your hoodies more they would be conditioned to be 'extra soft'." He made his voice to go high pitched and girly.

"My voice does not sound like that!" she said indignantly. "I'll have you know that I like so much is because it smells-"

"My apologies Miss. Ivy, Sir, Agent Coulson is insisting on talking to you," Jarvis interrupted.

Ivy rolled her eyes when her dad did the fake answering machine but she smiled as Ivory claimed into her lap. Ivory was her beautiful Ragamuffin cat. She was mainly white with blue eyes, the only parts that weren't white was the tail, ears, in between the eyes, and her two right paws which were a mix of black and light brown. Her blue eyes stood even more because of the burst of color in between them. Ivy's dad had finally gotten her the cat she wanted; she had just gotten her results for her muggle classes, saying that she had passed and graduated, and after going to Blaise's to celebrate she had come home to find Ivory in a basket on her bed.

Her head snapped up when her dad yelled something of a breach in security and the elevator opened to reveal Agent Phil.

Ivy smiled as she stood up with her arms around Ivory who went limp. "Hello, Mr. Phil, it's been awhile, you look tense." She ignored her dad who made a smart comment about his name being Agent, not Phil.

Phil gave a slightly tense smile to her, "Hello Miss Ivy. You look a lot less tense since I saw you."

Ivy made a pleased sound. She only grew another inch, so she was 4'9" now and she was tan from being in the sun. She wasn't just bones anymore, she had more meat on her bones, she had muscles from doing a lot of lifting in the Healing Ward (moving boxes and moving the furniture when the floors needed cleaning, Nurse Jenny didn't want her to rely on magic in case she couldn't move a patient magically and had to use her strength). And since she wasn't just bones anymore she actually grew some hips and breasts; she had gotten curves. Blaise was amused with it since her dad freaked out when he saw her in a bathing suit last month and seemed to notice. Of course the last time she saw Mr. Phil was when she thought her dad was dying so she hoped she didn't look that tense.

Ivy petted Ivory as her dad ignored the computer pad Mr. Phil was trying to give him and what he was saying. She let Ivory down on the ground as she took the computer from Mr. Phil and put it together. She snorted slightly when her dad edged closer and took it from her when the first information came up and started to walk away towards his computer. She grinned when she realized that Mr. Phil was trying to edge away from Ivory, who was trying to brush up against him.

Mr. Phil let out a sigh of relief when Ivy grabbed her cat back up before saying, "The Director wanted me to say that he was re initiating Avengers Initiative."

Ivy froze, her hand still on Ivory's head as her dad turned sharply. "I didn't qualify for the Avengers. Something about being volatile, self-obsessed, and not playing well with others?"

Ivy laughed before stuffing her face into Ivory's fluff when her dad gave her a look and Mr. Phil replied, "We need the Avengers and as soon as possible. Just look it over tonight and I leave in the morning. Give me a call when you decide."

Ivy watched as her dad had the information go on the screens and Mr. Phil walk back through the elevator. She walked up to stand next to her dad just looking at all the screens.

"That's a lot of information to look over," she petted Ivory as she cradled her. "I'll put away the game and go to my room to watch something."

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It wasn't till about midnight when Ivy made her way into her room. It was designed the same way but it had some different things in it. Instead of having the windows uncovered she had sheer white curtains with a dark purple over top; they were wide open at the moment so Ivy could see New York twinkling back at her. Her bed was the same with the same nightstands but with more pictures. Instead of a chaise she had an over sized chair, it could hold two people but wasn't a love seat, it was placed in front of her flat screen T.V. Next to the T.V. stand that held movies and an Xbox console was a door leading to her walk in closet. The desk was the same but next to it was a small bookcase that held medical books, some school books, and some lesson plan books.

Ivy set Ivory at the foot of the bed as she collapsed head first on it. She had a bad feeling since Mr. Phil had come by and after looking at some of the files of the other men. Whatever S.H.E.I.L.D. wanted of her dad would not end well. Something big had to be coming or already there for them to call on people like her dad, Agent Romanoff, Dr. Bruce Banner who went large and green, and Steven Rogers a.k.a Captain America. Not to mention have data on a Norse _God_ named Thor. It wasn't going to end well at all and she knew she didn't want her dad in the middle of it.

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Ivy woke up to her dad standing next to her looking slightly tired.

She rubbed her eyes as she sat up, "What's the matter?"

"I'm going to meet up with the Director and I wanted to know what you wanted to do?" her dad sat down facing her. He started to pet Ivory when she made her way next to him.

"Whatcha mean?" Ivy knew he was going to go.

"I wanted to know if you wanted to go with me or stay. You're old enough to stay home by yourself for a few days but I'm not sure how long this will take. So it's up to you," her dad looked out her window where they could see the sky changing from night to dawn. "If you come with me, you'll have to listen to exactly what I say and when I say, even if you don't like it, understand me?"

Ivy thought about her options, stay home alone (even if Jarvis was there she wouldn't have too much interaction with people) or go to some potentially dangerous situation. She knew her dad wouldn't allow harm to come to her and she would at least know what was happening.

"I think I'll come with you." It was odd to see her dad relax but see him tense up too. Her dad was probably happy that she was coming so he could keep a closer eye on her.

"OK then, you'll need to pack some clothes and try to find someone to watch Ivory," he said as he got up. "I'm going to go see if Agent Coulson left New York yet. If not then you're going with him."

"That's fine," Ivy got out of bed to stretch slightly.

She watched him walk out of her room already on his cell before she turned to go into her closet. She had a lot of her clothes hung up and the things that didn't get hung up where put into her built-in drawers. She made sure to pack clothes for a few days days in her over-night tote, thank Merlin it had charms on it to make it bottom-less and weight-less.

Ivy knew Ms. Pepper couldn't take Ivory since she was out on business for the Stark Inc. so Ivy tried Mr. Rhodey to take her. After some begging and promising to make him some pastry goodies (especially since she woke him up so early) he agreed to take Ivory till further notice. Ivy just had to floo back to their home in Malibu and drop off Ivory and Mr. Rhodey would pick her up during his lunch break and set her up in his home.

Ivy was just walking out of her father's lab, where the fireplace was located at, and into the living/kitchen area where her dad was sitting on the couch. When he saw her he jumped up and handed her the tote she packed.

"Agent Coulson is at the airport. He said that they would wait for you there. I have the car downstairs already waiting to take you there," he walked with her to the elevator and got in with her. "You'll get there first so try to stick to Agent Coulson if you can or with some you know you can trust."

"OK, Daddy," she curled her arm around his and leaned against him.

Since she was wearing her typical, by now, five inch wedges he didn't have to bend too much to plant a kiss on the top of her head. They walked out of the elevator and the building to see the black SUV. The driver was already holding her door open for her and he retrieved her tote to put in the back of the car.

Ivy gave her dad a hug and kiss before she hopped into the car, "I'll see you later today, Daddy. Have a safe flight, love you."

"Love you too, be safe." Ivy watched him through the tinted glasses till she couldn't anymore. She leaned her head back and closed her eyes till she felt the car come to a stop.

"Miss. Stark, we're here," her driver needlessly said.

Ivy rolled her eyes as the driver got out to open her door. She hated having drivers that she didn't know, Mr. Happy knew what she hated and having them announce that they were where they intended to go annoyed her. When she got of the car she noticed Mr. Phil waiting by a helicopter with another man with blonde hair standing next to him but his back was to her as he was talking to someone standing in the helicopter.

Ivy walked towards the back of the car to retrieve her tote from the driver before thanking him and watching him leave. She turned back to see Mr. Phil and the blonde man making the short distance to her.

"Hello, Mr. Phil. Nice to see you so soon," Ivy smiled at him before looking at the man next to him. Who was clearly Captain America a.k.a Steven Rogers. Who clearly had muscles under his clothes. Who had gorgeous blue eyes and blond hair.

She tripped. She put her hands out to stop her fall which helped somewhat considering she ended up scraping her hands and her right knee on the pavement but didn't face plant. She flushed as she heard Mr. Phil and Captain America give different cries and both of them helping her off the pavement.

"Are you alright, Ma'am?" Ivy flushed even more when she heard his voice.

"Miss. Ivy, are you OK?" Mr. Phil was asking as he tried to turn her hands over to check them.

"I'm alright, thank you for asking," Ivy tugged her hands out of Mr. Phil's before he could get a clear look at them. She immediately wiped them on her blue jeans, ignoring the sting of them and the rip in her right knee and tucked them up into her dad's hoodie, which she hadn't given back yet. She secured her tote on her shoulder once more before smiling at them. "How about we get out of here? I'm sure since you had to wait for me then you're most likely behind schedule."

Ivy tried to avoid looking at the Captain as she walked by him and into the helicopter but she didn't miss the searching look that Mr. Phil gave her before looking amused and nodding. She heard them climb in after her as she looked for a place to put her bag.

"Ma'am?" Ivy turned to look at the Captain as he stood next to her. "I can put that away for you, if you'd like?"

Ivy nodded as Mr. Phil had her sit down and watched him as he showed her how to strap herself into the seat. She pulled her iPod and headphones out and put them in as the helicopter started up. She slowly breathed in and out of her nose as she tried to calm her queasy stomach; she hated long car rides and having to be in the air, she always got motion sickness. Which was why she already had her iPod ready and she had some crystallized ginger in her tote. She noticed that Mr. Phil didn't look surprised at her actions while the Captain seemed a little confused. Before she hit play on her iPod she heard Mr. Phil say something about her having motion sickness. She closed her eyes and didn't open them back up till about an hour in the ride.

She noticed that there was nothing but clouds in the windows and that Mr. Phil and Captain were talking with their back to her. She pulled out one ear bud while listening to Mr. Phil say to him that they needed some 'old fashion' when Captain mentioned that his suit might be old fashioned.

Ivy pulled her right hand out of her pocket to rub her eye when she saw the peeling skin and some dried blood. "That's great."

She noticed Mr. Phil and Captain's heads flew around to look at her. She started to undo her harness without actually touching it with more than her finger tips as both hands were peeling and blood on them. It didn't work out but Mr. Phil had already motioned for her stay in her seat.

"Just stay sitting Miss. Ivy. I'll get the first aid and see what I can do till we get to the base." He walked over to a compartment as the Captain just stood there looking at her.

Ivy frowned up at him, why every man she met had to be so annoying tall she'll never know. Why couldn't some men be around her height? "Is something the matter?" she asked him when he kept staring at her. She could feel her cheeks warming.

He seemed to startle a little, "I'm sorry ma'am, no there isn't. My name is Steve Rogers." He stuck out his hand to her.

She looked at his hand then to her busted up hands and back to his, which he withdrew after apologizing. She shrugged at him, "I'm Ivy. You wouldn't happen to be related to Mr. Rogers?"

He looked at her slightly confused so she said, "You know Mister. Rogers's neighborhood."

"Miss. Ivy! I expect that from your father not you," Mr. Phil scolded her as he came back with the first aid.

Ivy ducked her head sheepishly before looking at Mr. Rogers, "I apologize. That was something my dad would say. That was rude of me, since I believe Mister. Rogers was after you, Captain Rogers."

He nodded, "You can call me Steve, ma'am."

Ivy smiled at him, "Well then Steve you can call me Ivy."

She turned her attention back to Mr. Phil who was digging through the first aid kit for rubbing alcohol pads and some gauze. She frowned at her hands; they were going to take a couple of days to heal. She couldn't wait till she turned seventeen, she would be able to do magic when she wanted.

"This will sting," Mr. Phil warned her when he opened a packet of the rubbing alcohol.

Ivy nodded to him; a little sting from the alcohol wasn't going to hurt her. She didn't wince when he pressed it on her hands or bound her palms in gauze. She did however shake her head as she got dizzy and she swayed slightly in her sitting position.

"Miss. Ivy? Are you feeling sick again?" Mr. Phil asked her as he checked her right knee.

Ivy nodded her head as she pulled her pant leg up and grabbed the alcohol pad from him to wipe her kneecap with it. "I have some ginger in my bag; it's in the front pocket."

She watched at Steve got her bag and pulled out her crystallized ginger that was in its sealed package. She thanked him when he opened the package for her and pulled one out to suck on it. She let Mr. Phil help her back into her harness and popped her ear buds back in before closing her eyes.

Ivy woke up an hour later with Mr. Phil shaking her shoulder. She pulled her ear buds out and shoved them with the iPod into her tote which he pulled down for her. She followed them both out and smiled at Agent Romanoff. She wasn't annoyed (unlike her dad) with Agent Romanoff for anything that happened two years ago. She was thankful to her since she was the one went under-cover to watch over her dying dad.

She greeted Agent Romanoff as the Steve and Dr. Banner greeted each other. "Hello, Agent Romanoff. How've you been?"

Agent Romanoff nodded to her, "I've been better, Miss. Stark. And how have you been?"

"I've been good. I'm sorry about Agent Barton."

"Thank you."

Ivy turned when she heard the two guys done talking and walked right up to Dr. Banner. She stuck out her right hand and smile, "Dr. Banner a pleasure to finally meet you. My name is Ivy and I know a lot about your work," she gave a wider grin when she noticed him hesitating. "Don't worry about my hand, just a scrap."

Dr. Banner gave a small smile at her before shaking her hand gently. "Nice to meet you, Ivy, you can call me Bruce. If you don't mind my asking but you seem a little young to be reading my works."

Ivy rocked back till she was standing on her heels of her wedges, "I don't mind you asking. I've read a couple of your older publishing but that's about it. Most of the time if goes over my mind but I know enough to understand, I would have to with my father. Who is the reason I know so much of works; he is a huge fan."

"Who is your father?"

Ivy smiled at him, "Everyone will meet him when he shows up. Trust me you'll notice him. I'm going to head in and try to catch some sleep."

Steve and Dr. Bruce nodded to her while Agent Romanoff caught another agent and had him show Ivy where she was staying.

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Ivy didn't wake up till later that evening and when she walked to the main deck she found out that her dad was returning shortly with Steve, Agent Romanoff, Thor, and the captive. Since they weren't to be back for another forty minutes Ivy decided to explore some. She found the food hall, more rooms for agents, a couple of different bathrooms with showers, a lot of locked doors and the lab that Dr. Bruce was working in.

Ivy walked into the lab just as Dr. Bruce looked up to stare at the window across from them. They both watched as armed guards were walking with a pale, dark-haired, green eyed man walked by. The man seemed to know they were staring but he looked right at Dr. Bruce while giving a mocking smile.

"Weird," Ivy whispered to Dr. Bruce who just nodded. "Main Deck?"

Another nod and they set off to the main deck but before they made it there Ivy broke off to go to the bathroom. She walked into the main deck, a few minutes later, and sat in seat by Dr. Bruce who was standing as everyone listened to Thor talk about the army his brother had named the Chitauri. She wasn't really paying attention to what was said after till Thor got annoyed with Dr. Bruce.

"Have a care how you speak. Loki is beyond reason, but he is of Asgard and he is my brother," Thor snapped at Dr. Bruce.

"He killed eighty people in two days," Agent Romanoff deadpanned.

"…he's adopted," was the reply.

Ivy busted out laughing before slapping her hands to her mouth when everyone stared at her. She flushed.

If Ivy didn't want any more attention on herself she would have jumped up to hug him when Dr. Bruce took the attention on to him and she was even more joyful when her dad stepped in with Agent Coulson. She gave him a bright smile when his eyes looked her over the best he could give since she was sitting down. She made sure to keep her hands under the table and in her hoodie pocket. She didn't need her dad to freak out just yet.

Ivy watched her dad walk to the front and called for the monitors to be raised. She then proceeded to choke in shock when he pointed out an Agent who was playing Galaga.

She tried to stop from laughing as her dad continued, "How does Fury even see these?" He was covering his left eye and turned his body dramatically from side to side.

She shook her head at Agent Hill who opened her mouth, "He turns."

Ivy didn't know why no one listened to her when she tried stopping them, it didn't do any good to encourage her dad's antics. "Sounds exhausting." Case in point.

"The rest of the raw materials, Agent Barton can get his hands on pretty easily. Only major component he still needs is a power source. A high energy density, something to kick-start the cube." Ivy smirked at her dad when she saw him put what she knew was a chip to hack into all the S.H.I.E.L.D. files. He just gave her a wink making her smirk turn into a smile. Ivy noticed Dr. Bruce staring at them in confusion.

Agent Hill sounded half-annoyed and half-impressed, "When did you become an expert in thermonuclear astrophysics?"

"Last night. The packet, Selvig's notes, the Extraction Theory papers. Am I the only one who did the reading?"

Ivy almost rolled her eyes at him as Steve cut him off with a question that was answered by Dr. Bruce. Ivy did roll her eyes and snorted when her dad said to the room at large, "Finally someone who speaks English."

She grinned when she heard Steve mutter, "Is that what just happened?"

"If you know what we're up against, I want you two to start tracking the cube," Director Fury ordered as he walked into the room.

"Let's start with that stick of his. It may be magical, but it works an awful lot like a Hydra weapon."

"I don't know about that, but it is powered by the cube," Fury said, while walking further into the room. "And I'd like to know how Loki used it to turn two of the sharpest men I know into his personal flying monkeys."

Ivy had to smother a laugh when Thor sounded and looked confused when he didn't understand what Director Fury said while Steve immediately exclaimed that he did. Ivy forced her head into her arms that she placed on the table.

Ivy could feel her dad rolling his eyes as he turned to Dr. Bruce, "Shall we go play, Dr. Banner?"

Ivy still had her head in her arms when the Director spoke again, "Stark take your brat with you. I don't need her trying every door on this carrier."

"Don't call my daughter a brat, Fury."

Ivy's head snapped up as several people exclaimed, "Daughter!"

"Hey I was just checking my boundaries. I know if I'm allowed somewhere and where I'm not," Ivy said indignantly as she stood up. She ignored the looks that the other people were giving her.

She grabbed her dad's hand as they walked out of the room with Dr. Bruce right behind them.

"Well you did tell me that I would know your dad when I met him," Dr. Bruce said to her once they got into the lab.

Ivy grinned at him as her dad pulled the gauze off to look at her hands.


	13. Chapter 13

_Hello everybody! I know it's been awhile since I've uploaded but college started up and then I got sucked into to watching Doctor Who (5 seasons in a month is pretty good and sad when I think about it) :). So between school, homework, work, and watching Doctor Who I've had little time to writing. I have the next chapter already written out and I just started the following one. _

_Thanks for all the reviews!  
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_I would like to thank my lovely beta Ivory Winter.  
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_Read, Enjoy, and Review :)  
_

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Ivy was making her way towards the mess hall a few hours later and had just turned the corner and saw Thor standing a few feet away from the doors. She saw him with her back towards her but he turned when she got closer.

Ivy smiled at him. "Hello, Thor. Coming this way?" she asked as she went to open the door.

"I am in need of nourishment," he said while he walked closer. "You are the daughter of the Man of Iron?"

"Yes I am," she replied, holding the door wider for him to go in before her.

Thor took the door and motioned for her to go ahead of him, which she did with a smile. She looked back to see him following and noticed that everyone in the hall looked at them. Some were polite enough to go back to their group or food, but some still stared as they made their way to the serving line. Ivy grabbed herself a plastic, brown tray and handed one to Thor.

"My thanks," he said, following her down the line.

"Not a problem," Ivy smiled at him as she picked up cheese fries and chicken tenders.

Ivy watched Thor load his tray up with all different types of foods. Ivy didn't think she would have enough room for the pizza, burger, fries, and chicken legs in one go but she figured he needed it, considering how huge he was. Ivy handed over money when she got to the check-out line and stood to the side as Thor got checked-out.

"That'll be twenty-one fifty-three," the agent said from behind the register.

Thor looked confused before he frowned, "I'm sorry but I do not have the paper or plastic that you need."

Ivy looked up as she grabbed some napkins when the agent responded, "I'm sorry, sir, but I can't let you have the food then."

"Do agents have to pay for their food?" Ivy asked as she stepped closer.

"Most have a service plan that gets docked from their pay," the agent explained as he reached for Thor's tray.

The agent frowned when Ivy pulled it towards herself, "How much did you say it was?" she asked.

The agent talked over Thor's protests. "Twenty-one fifty-three."

Ivy pulled out the wallet from her hoodie pocket again and pulled out twenty-two dollars. "Here you go. Keep the change. Come on, Thunder God."

Ivy walked towards the other end of the mess hall where there were fewer agents and a few windows. She smiled at Thor as he sat down.

"You have my thanks and I shall repay you," Thor said as he took a huge bite out of his burger.

"No need." Ivy carefully pulled apart some of her cheese fries.

They ate in silence for a while till they were about half way through their meals. Ivy wiped her hands off as Thor just stared at her while chewing on a chicken leg.

Ivy could feel her face flush as he continued to stare at her. "Is there something on my face?"

Thor shook his head before looking around quickly and leaning towards her, which prompted her to lean forward too.

"What's the matter?" she asked, pushing her tray out a little further from her body.

"You do have the same _feel_ as someone I know," Thor whispered to her. "Not like the other humans."

Ivy froze. "What do you mean, Thor?"

Thor looked slightly frustrated. "You feel like people who cast magic in my home."

Ivy didn't know if she should freak out or stay calm. Thor seemed to know what she was thinking. "Do not worry, little sorceress, I shall keep this secret. I have not come across someone with the same feel even when I first laid eyes on this planet."

Ivy searched his face before giving a tentative smile and nodded to him, and he grinned back at her. "Would you like to learn more about the magic users on this planet?"

Ivy didn't think she would be in trouble for talking about magic to him since he was a God and he must have used some type of magic to get here. She grinned at him as he nodded to her, looking eager.

"How about we go somewhere less open?" she suggested as she slowly stood up.

"Lead on, little sorceress." Thor grabbed both trays and carried them to the trash bins.

"You know that you'll have to stop calling me that or people will wonder," she half said, half asked.

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It was the following day and Ivy was camped out (sleeping) in the lab with her dad and Dr. Bruce. It didn't take a genius to notice that her dad was slowly becoming smitten with Dr. Bruce. Ivy didn't think there could be anyone else better suited for each other. Dr. Bruce seemed to have a calming effect on her dad, which amused her to no end. But she was grateful for it when Steve left after arguing with him.

Ivy watched through half-lidded eyes as Dr. Bruce and her dad quietly talked, still thinking she was taking a nap. Ivy hated her appointed room because it was bare, uncomfortable, and she figured if her dad was going to be in the lab for most of the time then she would stay with them. She felt safer being in the same room with him, especially as she didn't really know anyone else on the floating ship.

She was falling back to sleep when her stomach let out a hungry sound, making her curl up in a ball from embarrassment. She could feel her face turn red when she heard two snorts.

"Shut up," she muttered to them.

Her dad smiled at her when she uncurled just for it to turn into a smirk when her stomach made the sound again. "There are snacks in my bag you can munch on while I get something from the mess hall."

Ivy watched him walk out the door without hesitating about leaving her with Dr. Bruce, who did look slightly wary. Ivy smiled at him and she stood up with the blanket wrapped around her, drawing it tight around her body. She always felt cold when she woke up from a nap.

Dr. Bruce smiled hesitantly at her as she snatched a fruit snack out of her dad's bag and started to munch on them. Ivy curled up on a chair beside Dr. Bruce who scooted slightly to the side.

Ivy frowned up at him. "Am I bothering you? 'Cause if I am then I could leave. I don't have a problem with that." She started to get up.

Dr. Bruce put his hand on her shoulder and pushed slightly so she stayed in her chair. Ivy smiled. She didn't think she bothered him but it was always nice to ask just in case. "No!" he said, "I'm sorry; I didn't mean to make you feel like you should leave. You're fine."

Ivy nodded before pulling her hands into her blankets and shoving a handful of fruit gummies into her mouth. "I know my dad can be somewhat of a handful but you're doing great on handling him."

"Handling him? I haven't been doing that," he immediately protested.

Ivy knew that but she wanted to get his opinion of her dad. "You aren't? Most people just humor him…"

Dr. Bruce turned back to his screen when it let out a beep. "I can handle being poked or what your dad does, that's just fine. I wouldn't have come here if I couldn't handle a few annoyances. Not that your dad is an annoyance," he hurriedly said.

Ivy raised an eyebrow at him.

"Most of the time," he amended. "Your dad so far has been the only one to treat me like an actual human being. I wouldn't even be here if I didn't know anything about gamma rays. I understand that everyone is busy but your dad takes the time to inquire how I'm doing. Did you know he actually sent me to bed this morning?"

Ivy smiled at him. "You're asking his daughter if I could believe that he sent you to bed? Do you know how many times he's sent me to bed in my life time?"

Dr. Bruce flashed an amused smile. "I would say about sixteen years' worth, give or take."

Ivy shoved another mouthful of fruit into her mouth while shaking her head. "I didn't live with my dad till I was six so only about ten or so years. Didn't it say that in the packet?"

Dr. Bruce drew up another rolling chair and frowned. "I only knew Tony had a daughter because I had seen you two on a newspaper clip a few years back for a charity event. There wasn't anything on you in the packet."

Ivy hummed as she chewed. "Dad probably had something to do with that. Oh, well."

Dr. Bruce went to open his mouth but shut it when her dad came back in holding a plastic tray that was weighed down with food and several types of drinks.

"I've brought some horrible high school type food and drinks. I didn't know what either of you wanted so I just grabbed." He set it on the small table where they were sitting, then drew up a chair for himself.

Ivy grabbed a plastic container that contained chicken salad and started to munch on it while Dr. Bruce and her dad took sandwiches.

Ivy let the blanket pool around her waist and she shoved her hoodie sleeve up her arm to grab a fork. She frowned at her dad, who in turn was frowning at her hoodie.

"You get anything on my hoodie and I'll make you regret it," he told her. "And you are eating more than just that salad."

Ivy stuck her tongue out at him but she did reach for a sandwich when she was done with the salad, and then an orange too.

While Ivy was peeling the orange she noticed Dr. Bruce looking at her. "Wha?"

He shook his head while turning back to his screen. "Just wondering where you put it all. You're so skinny."

"I'm always moving around. Can't stay still for long periods of time unless I'm watching a show or in class," Ivy grinned as she shoved another slice in her mouth.

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Ivy was standing next to Dr. Bruce, about an hour after their lunch, listening to him explain exactly how they were looking for the Tesseract when she heard her dad's monitor beep. "Your scan done, Daddy?"

"Sounds like it." He sounded smug.

Ivy jumped slightly when the Director barged into the lab. "What do you think you're doing, Mr. Stark?"

"Uh… kind of wondering the same thing about you." Only her dad would sound so unconcerned when hacking private files.

"Miss. Stark, would you be so kind to return to your room," he asked even as she looked over her dad's shoulder to look at the screen.

Her dad shook his head at the Director. "She doesn't have to go to her room. She is old enough to know what is going on."

"You're supposed to be locating the Tesseract," the Director snapped at him.

Ivy heard Dr. Bruce reply as she stared at the screen, and she ignored what her dad was saying so she could look at the file that said 'Phase Two'. Ivy turned with everyone when the door opened, and Steve walked in with a huge weapon of some sort, one that was similar to the one in the file.

"Phase Two is S.H.I.E.L.D. used the cube to make weapons," Steve explained, glancing at Tony. "Sorry, the computer was moving a little slow for me."

Ivy opened the file while the director talked some bull about it just being gathered evidence. She quickly expanded the file to show the weapon and details of it.

"I was wrong, Director," Steve snorted derisively. "The world hasn't changed a bit." When her dad showed the plans for the weapons to the room at large; Ivy started to nibble on her lip slightly as the tension slowly built up. Ivy scooted till she was back by Dr. Bruce as Agent Romanoff and Thor walked into the room, making it feel more cramped. Ivy had a bad feeling and it had nothing to do with her slight fear of small rooms.

"I'm sorry Miss. Stark but don't you think you should be in your room, where you would be _safe_?" Agent Romanoff asked.

Ivy could see Dr. Bruce stiffen up. "She is sixteen and her father is in the middle of this mess you people brought to us. I think she has a right to be here."

Ivy placed her hand on Dr. Bruce's arm when he snipped with Agent Romanoff. Agent Romanoff's eyes widened at her but Ivy ignored her as she felt Dr. Bruce relax slightly. Ivy wasn't totally sure if what she was going to do would work since she wasn't using her wand, but she figured if she willed it enough she would be able to do it. Nurse Jenny taught her the trick when she first became her apprentice; it was a calming technique that made patients more approachable and let you treat them quicker and easier.

Ivy felt her hand warm up slightly and she noticed Dr. Bruce eyes narrow down at her but he turned back to the computer screen and the Director. "I'd like to know why S.H.I.E.L.D. is using the Tesseract to build weapons of mass destruction."

"Stark, I would really like for you to tell your daughter to return to her room. She is not an adult, no matter where she comes from." Ivy felt herself tense up at those words. She could see her dad tense up before looking hard at the Director. "She shouldn't be here."

Ivy spoke up before her dad could say anything rude. "If you know where I come from then you would know technically that I am almost an adult."

"Don't play with me, Miss. Stark. Be grateful I let you on this air craft knowing what happens to technology when people like you are near it." The Director was frowning at her.

Ivy spluttered, "People like me!?" Ivy saw Thor shift and narrow his eyes on the Director.

The Director sighed. "Yes, I've had it happen before, which is why I suggest you go back to your room before you get overwhelmed."

"You know she isn't a kid, Fury?" her dad asked. "She does have control over her 'abilities'."

Before the Director could open his mouth, Steve asked, "What are you three talking about? What abilities?"

"Nothing you need to concern yourself with, Mr. Rogers." Agent Romanoff said. Ivy whipped her head around to look at the female agent. "You know I lived with you and your father for a while, of course I knew about you and everything else."

Ivy gaped at her, even as Dr. Bruce snapped at the room at large. "I don't really care about what you all are talking about. I want to know why your organization is using the Tesseract to build weapons."

Ivy sighed when she heard the Director give his reasons. Fear always made people do things, even if they didn't want to. Her relatives feared her and they acted on it and now since S.H.E.I.L.D. acted on their fear of planets with other beings, they basically told the universe that they were ready for them.

"A nuclear deterrent," Tony said, voice uncharacteristically sharp. "'Cause that always calms everything right down."

Ivy flinched slightly and pressed a little more into Dr. Bruce, who in turn wrapped an arm around her. She hadn't heard her dad's voice that sharp in years; since she was about seven or eight years old.

The Director turned to him and asked coolly, "Remind me again how you made your fortune, Stark?"

"I'm sure if he still made weapons, Stark would be neck deep in it," Steve jumped in. Ivy stared in disbelief as all the adults in the room went crazy.

"You speak of control, yet you court chaos," Ivy heard Thor's scornful voice raise above everyone's.

"It's his M.O., isn't it?" Bruce said bitterly, squeezing Ivy more into his side when she flinched. She quickly placed her other hand on him and focused more soothing energy through. "I mean, what are we, a team? No, no, no. We're a chemical mixture that makes chaos. We're... we're a time-bomb."

"You need to step away," the Director said to him. Ivy knew he was referring to the situation and her, if the Director's eye flick meant anything. They both knew that if anything happened to her, her dad wouldn't hold back on them.

Ivy sought out her dad in the room as she heard him say, "Why shouldn't the guy let off a little steam?" He put his hand on Steve's shoulder.

Her dad looked her over before his attention was drawn back to Steve, who roughly shoved his hand off while snapping, "You know damn well why! Back off!"

Ivy watched with big eyes as her dad and Steve got into it more. She felt her eyes well up when Steve asked her dad what he was when he wasn't in his suit.

"Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist," Tony returned easily. "Not to mention a fath-. "

Steve cut him off before he could finish, "I know guys with none of that worth ten of you," he said coldly. "I've seen the footage. The only thing you really fight for is yourself. You're not the guy to make the sacrifice play, to lay down on a wire and let the other guy crawl over you."

"I think I would just cut the wire."

Ivy pressed her hand tighter into Dr. Bruce's hand on her shoulder as she listened to them. She didn't understand how two people could not get along so drastically after only just meeting.

"Always a way out," Steve sneered. "You know, you may not be a threat, but you better stop pretending to be a hero."

Ivy took a step forward to give Steve a piece of her mind only to find that Dr. Bruce was holding on to her while looking at her dad. Hurt flashed through his eyes before he replied, scorn and the intent to hurt back in his voice, "A hero, like you? You're a laboratory experiment, Rogers. Everything special about you came out of a bottle."

Ivy tensed up more when she heard Steve dare her dad to put on his suit on. Her head snapped to the Director as he addressed her. "Miss. Stark, now may be a good time to go back to your room."

Ivy glared at him. "Excuse me, Director, but you are not my father, so you have no authority over me. And you clearly know that I am not just a regular child to be told where to go. So, no, I will not be returning to my room or leaving."

The director frowned at her as Steve spoke up. "He is the commander of the ship. He can tell you to leave if he doesn't want sensitive information in the hands of someone who isn't even part of the team or working for S.H.I.E.L.D. No matter what you say, you are only sixteen years old. No sixteen year old should be in a situation like the one we are in now."

It looked like her dad was about to tear into Steve when the Director sighed and turned to Agent Romanoff. "Would you escort Dr. Banner back to his room -"

Ivy felt Dr. Bruce tense up next to her. "Where? You're renting my room."

Another sigh. "The cell was just to -"

"In case you needed to kill me, but you can't!" he spat out, gripping Ivy's shoulder a little bit harder. "I know, I tried."

Ivy felt herself and everyone else freeze.

"I got low, I didn't see an end, so I put a bullet in my mouth and the other guy spat it out. So I moved on, I focused on helping other people. I was good until you dragged me back into this freak show and put everyone here at risk, but I feel fine right now. Sending me to my room for a timeout; _that's_ going to piss me off!"

Ivy didn't move as they heard the monitor that was searching for the Tesseract. She did however shift slightly when Dr. Bruce moved towards the monitor to look at it.

Everything went to hell after that.

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Ivy rushed up the stairs to find anyone she knew not twenty minutes later. She couldn't help Dr. Bruce and hopefully agent Romanoff had enough time to run ahead. After falling down with Dr. Bruce and Agent Romanoff, Ivy somehow landed on Bruce when it should have been the other way around. Ivy knew she was lucky she didn't break her arm, considering her awkward landing. She was lucky that Dr. Bruce had cushioned her fall.

Ivy had quickly helped Agent Romanoff out from under the bar as Dr. Bruce transformed into the Hulk. After helping Agent Romanoff, she had tried to get to Dr. Bruce before he fully transformed, but when she had turned he was already in the shadows and Hulked. She knew the minute she put her hand on his arm that she wouldn't be able to calm him; there was too much rage for her calming spell to work. She wasn't scared of him; she knew he wouldn't hurt her and it was proven when he didn't even touch her when she stood in his way. Ivy watched as Agent Romanoff ran off and she made sure she stood in front of the Hulk's way till she couldn't hear Agent Romanoff any more. Ivy had tried to warn the agents that had sneaked up on them to back off but they had opened fire and the Hulk had run after them. Which was why Ivy had ran upstairs for help.

It was chaos in some parts and quiet in others. She thought it was a little weird that the area around Loki's cell was quiet. Ivy paused as she went past it. She could feel her magic reacting to something behind the door. She got closer and saw Mr. Phil in there with one of the Phase Two guns, pointing it at Loki who was standing out of the cell and Thor in it. Ivy slowly made her way in the room with her wand in her hand. She would do what she had to, so as to ensure that she and her dad got out safely. She would help who she could on the way, and she wasn't about to let Mr. Phil face Loki on his own. She could feel Loki's magic in the air and she could feel her magic wrap around herself as protection.

She rushed towards Mr. Phil and pushed him out of the way of Loki's spear, which went right into her upper left arm. Ivy cried out as he ripped it back out. She stepped in front of Mr. Phil who was getting back up, who looked for the Phase Two gun that had gotten jarred out of his arms when she pushed him, and made sure she had her eyes on Loki who was staring at her. She did however notice that the Phase Two gun somehow got pushed behind Loki and out of their reach for the moment.

"Brother, please, let them go," Thor begged from inside of the cell.

Loki didn't take his eyes off of Ivy's. Ivy loosened her grip on her wand, to prevent her hand from cramping. She formed a shield bubble around her and Mr. Phil which just made Loki take a step closer to them.

"A magic user?" he breathed out, ignoring his brother and the agent that was behind her.

"A witch," Ivy replied, stalling for time, stalling for someone who could actually fight Loki and not get killed. She hoped that Mr. Phil would be able to go around to release Thor from his cage, to get to the control panel or even get to the Phase Two gun lying behind Loki. Ivy stayed tensed up even as she felt Mr. Phil leave the bubble to slowly back out, and Loki took another step around.

"Who would have thought a sorceress would be here on this boring rock."

Ivy stood her ground, even when Loki was less than a foot away from her bubble, which was three feet in front of her. "I won't hurt you little sorceress."

Ivy gave a half smile; trust that the brothers would call her that. She wasn't afraid of him but she was afraid of what he would do to Mr. Phil, Thor, her dad and everyone on this planet.

"Don't believe me, Little Sorceress?" Loki took the last step and swiped his scepter across her bubble of protection, breaking it with the odd magic that was held within it. She knew he didn't have to see it to know how far he walked before he bumped into it.

"Why should I trust you? You're trying to kill everyone I care for on this planet. Not to mention you were about to send your own brother to his death." Ivy stood her ground, even when he reached out his hand to capture her jaw. Ivy forced herself to remain still as she saw Mr. Phil finally reach the control panel. "Plus your spear just went through my arm. Probably shouldn't say you're not going to hurt me when you just did."

"I wouldn't have to kill everyone you care for if they surrender themselves to me. In my defense, you jumped in front of the spear."

Ivy made sure to give her best smile as she asked, "Even your brother? The past day or so I've gotten to know him and I have to say I enjoy talking to him."

Loki sneered as his grip became bruising on her chin, making her try to squirm away. He suddenly turned her chin still in his grip and threw his spear at Mr. Phil who was reaching for the panel to release Thor. Ivy panicked as her magic apparated her, and by extension Loki, to where Mr. Phil was standing, and she quickly used her magic to throw the spear off course. She cried out as Loki threw her from him and she stumbled and fell, catching herself with her right arm; the same hand that held her wand. She felt as it snapped under her weight and felt part of it make it through her palm.

Ivy quickly got back up and looked at her hand to see her wand; half under the skin in her hand and the other half dangling by a piece of wood. She snapped it off and turned once more towards Loki who had just got his spear back and was about to strike Mr. Phil. She pushed Mr. Phil over, making Loki miss his heart and having the spear go through his upper right chest.

Loki snarled at her before reaching out to grab her. Ivy backed up; she didn't want him anywhere near her.

"Come now, Little Sorceress, you know you don't want to fight me." He gave her a cool smile, even as he turned to the control panel and sent his own brother to his death.

"If I don't want to fight you it's because I'm not a fighter," Ivy snapped at him, feeling her eyes well up with tears. "I'm training to be a healer and I would never be so cruel as to send family to their death."

Ivy saw Mr. Phil reach for the Phase Two gun but she still winced when Loki was blasted through the door and quickly sealed the doors to not let him back in. She ran to Mr. Phil as he fell back, coughing up blood.

"Mr. Phil! Stay with me," she cried out, conjuring up gauze and applying it to his chest wound.

"You did wonderfully, Ivy," Mr. Phil told her as he coughed up more blood. "You can call me Phil. I am glad that I was with you in the end."

"No! You are not going to die! I won't let you," Ivy cried. She put more pressure on his chest and forced her magic to her hands to start healing the wound. She cried harder as she saw him pass out but she forced more magic to heal.

She stayed sitting by Phil, forcing her magic into his body even when other agents came in and tried to move her. Ivy didn't move till the Director came in and bodily carried her towards the hospital wing.

She passed out just as agents brought in Phil.

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Ivy woke up in the hospital bay feeling groggy and pain radiating from her left arm. She frowned as she sat up. She looked around to see if anyone was in the room with her but she didn't see anyone. She did see bloody sheets on the bed next to her.

She noticed that she was in a thin hospital gown and the black yoga pants she had been wearing. She slowly got out of bed, making sure to keep her left arm to her body so she didn't accidentally hit it. She was just bending to look under the bed for her bra, shirt, and hoodie when an agent came in.

"Miss. Stark! You shouldn't be up, you should stay in the bed," the agent exclaimed as he walked closer to Ivy.

"Where's my dad?" Ivy demanded, pulling the bag from under the bed.

"He's not here. He left with Captain America and Agents Romanoff and Barton to go to New York," the agent explained.

Ivy glared at him. She pulled out her torn and bloody clothes. She grabbed her bra which was fine besides the blood on the left side, threw her shirt out in the trash and grabbed her hoodie before hobbling to the bathroom with the agent following.

Ivy snapped the door in his face, and turned to look at herself in the mirror. Her face was pale; her hair was half out of her bun with some parts of the hair matted with blood. She pulled the gown off. She had minor bruising on her left arm, which from elbow up was wrapped tightly in white gauze (she could feel where the stitches were, where the spear had hit) and her right hand was wrapped up lightly. She carefully wiped her hair down, put it back into a bun and put her bra and hoodie on with her shaking hands.

When she walked back out of the bathroom she saw that the agent had called the Director. He was standing by her vacant bed with her tote on it. Ivy frowned at him, but she walked over to her bag to grab her cell out. A message from her dad was there telling her to stay with the Director. She gripped her cell tightly in her hand as the director went to a cabinet and pulled out a sling.

She wordlessly took it from him.

"I figured you didn't want to stay in here the whole time so you can come with me to the main deck or we can lock you in your room." The Director was staring at her. "Which will it be, Miss. Stark?"

Ivy glared at her cell as she said, "Main deck."

The Director nodded like he knew what she was going to say and proceeded to help her into the sling. "Well, let's make our way there and I'll get someone to get you something to drink and eat?"

Ivy just nodded her head as she went through her tote to grab her vans to slip on her bare feet. "The agent that was in here said everybody left to go to New York."

"Yes," he said, sounding slightly annoyed. "They figured out that Loki will be using Stark Tower. Your father went ahead of the others to see if he could stop it."

"Of course he did." Ivy felt fear grip her heart.

The Director turned to her. "Your father just left about fifteen minutes ago. He didn't want to leave till he knew for sure that you were going to be okay and that we would keep you safe. Trust me when I say that he was difficult to get off this air craft. He wouldn't leave till he had gotten a hold of your teacher and nurse, a Jennifer Wright."

"What did she say?" Ivy probably knew what she had said but she wanted to know what the Director would tell her.

"She said that you would wake up when you were ready to. That you have used so much magic, and a lot of it in a short amount of time, that you were exhausted. The only thing we could do was let you sleep and make sure you ate when you woke up." The Director opened the main deck door open for her.

Ivy nodded to him, walking to the table where there was food waiting for her. "Thank you, Director Fury."

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Ivy had eaten as much as she could given that the Director had a couple of large monitors up showing The Avengers fighting in New York. Ivy had watched as S.H.I.E.L.D. got views of the fight from satellites and cameras around the city. That was about an hour ago and now Ivy was watching in horror as her dad flew towards the portal with the nuclear missile. The whole deck was dead quiet and watching the monitors.

Most people's heads turned around when her cell went off with her father's ringtone, an AC/DC song, and she immediately grabbed it and answered. "Daddy?"

Even the Director turned his head when he heard how small and broken her voice sounded. Ivy saw him press something on the control panel as she walked out of the room.

"Hi, Sweetie." He sounded slightly breathless as he said it.

"Daddy, what are you doing?" she demanded. She heard a strange echo of the words.

"Keeping you safe." She could hear static coming over the connection.

"Daddy…." she whispered. She slid to the floor next to the still open door and she realized that she could hear herself talking. "….please don't leave me alone, Daddy."

"You won't be alone, Darling. You'll have Rhodey and Pepper to watch over you and you have Blaise and Nurse Jenny. I'm positive that you'll have this group looking out for you too."

"I don't want Rhodey, Pepper, Blaise, Jenny or anyone else. I want you! You're _my _dad!" Ivy could feel her tears sliding down her face. "I love you, please don't do this."

"I love you so much, Ivy. It's because I love you so much that I'm going to end this. I couldn't have wished for a more beautiful, brilliant, wonderful daughter. Remember that I always love you."

Ivy froze as she heard static come through the line. "Daddy?" she whispered. Hearing nothing come through the line, she lurched forward, making her throw out her arms to catch herself.

She screamed as she threw her cell against the wall and her stitches reopened.

"Close the portal."

Ivy clutched her arm where her stitches were, panting as she stared in front of her. She couldn't think; she felt like she was suffocating where she was standing and she felt her whole body shaking from pure exhaustion from the whole day and using her magic as she did.

There was movement in the corner of her eye and she saw Agent Hill standing by the door, blocking other people from seeing her. Everything was quiet besides her heavy breathing. She moved closer to the door and consequently to Agent Hill who turned to help her back in the room to have a seat.

She was just sitting when she heard Rogers' voice come through the communication link. "Sir, we see Iron Man now. He made it back through the portal."

Her head snapped up to watch the monitor and of her dad free falling through the air. Her hope died just as it rose when she noticed he wasn't slowing down.

She heard Thor mention the same thing before the Hulk tackled him out of the air. Ivy felt herself die a little bit more when they didn't confirm that he was alive.


	14. Chapter 14

_Hello Everybody, it's been a while since I've updated. Nothing like life and college to interrupt writing : ) I'm still hashing out the next chapter so it might be a little bit before I put it up but I wanted you guys to have this one. _

_Merry Christmas to everybody who celebrates and I hope you have a good one. Happy New Years, also, be safe.  
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_Thanks to everybody who has reviewed, favorited and put this story on their alerts. It means a lot.  
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_I would like to thank my lovely beta, Ivory Winter.  
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_This chapter does go in a different direction then what I think most of you are thinking but I hope you still like it : )  
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_Read, Enjoy and Review._

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_Ivy had watched in horror as her dad free fell and now looked on in despair as the Hulk, Captain America and Thor tried their best to make him start breathing again._

_Ivy knew in her heart that the phone call was the last time she would hear her dad talk to her, that today was the last day she would get a kiss in the morning or hug whenever she wanted. That last night was going to be the final time she got to see him right before bed. She'll never have the milk he made her again and he'll never be there to greet her after she gets home from school. He'll never be there for when she graduates from her last classes and finishes the apprenticeship with Nurse Jenny. He won't see her start muggle college to get her degree in medicine or teaching. He wouldn't be there for a lot of her milestones and that broke her heart even more._

_She understood that she would be in the great hands of Mr. Rhodey and Ms. Pepper but they wouldn't fill in for her dad. Even Blaise and his mom, Candace, wouldn't compare. _

_Ivy felt herself go cold and she knew if she wasn't already sitting that she would have been on the ground from shock. She felt like she was going to throw up or pass out when Captain America confirmed that there wasn't a heartbeat. _

_She didn't even feel her tears until Agent Hill gently set a box of tissues in front of her. Ivy ignored the box and buried her head into her arms, letting the hoodie soak the tears up. She couldn't hear anything over the roaring in her ears and her heartbeat, which was going a mile a minute. _

_Ivy didn't know how long she sat there for, all she knew that it felt like forever before she heard a series of cracks, not unlike the sound of apparation. _

_Ivy's head snapped up while everyone on the deck turned with their guns already up. Ivy could only look in disbelief as she stared at the people she never wanted to see again._

_There were a total of three gentlemen. In the front was an ancient old man who she knew was Albus Dumbledore, who had a long white bread and bright blue eyes behind thin wire frames. To the left of him was an old man but younger than Dumbledore, Alastair Moody who was missing a leg, with a wooden one in place, and several scars. The one on the right Ivy had never met but knew from pictures, the one who was named her godfather and had been released from prison when she was eight. He had raven shoulder length hair and grey eyes that held the same amount of shadows that her dad's eyes held when he thought she wasn't around. _

"_Was there something you needed, Lord Dumbledore?" Ivy didn't take her eyes off them to look at the Director. He obviously knew something of the magical world and Dumbledore was a huge part in Europe._

"_Nothing you can help me with, Director Fury. We just need Miss. Potter." Dumbledore still sounded the same to Ivy, cold and fake polite. _

_Ivy felt Agent Hill step closer to her but Moody snapped his wand up and shot a spell at her, making her get out of the way and several gun shots to go off. The bullets came to a stop a couple of feet in front of the wizards. Ivy had ducked under the table she was sitting at. _

"_Stupid Muggles. You think a gun is going to stop us?" Moody growled to the room at large._

"_No, we don't think guns are going to stop you but we know it will detain you," the Director calmly stated. "I'm afraid Lord Dumbledore that I can't let you take Miss Stark. She is under my protection until her guardians get her, who are not you or your companions." _

_The one on the right took a step forward. "Well, you don't have to worry about that. I can take her since I'm her godfather."_

"_And you are?" the Director asked._

"_Sirius Black."_

"_You are not my godfather!" Ivy spoke up from her spot on the floor before she stood up._

"_Of course I am, Ivy. Your mum and dad named me godfather when you were born." Sirius moved forward, smiling at her. _

_Ivy stood her ground, she wasn't afraid of him. "My godfather's name is James Rhodes, not someone who doesn't even exist in the muggle world."_

_Sirius looked angry as he walked a little closer, ignoring Dumbledore's hand which was trying to keep Sirius closer to himself and Moody. "Your father, James Potter, was my best friend and he named me your godfather. Who gives a damn about whether the muggles think I exist or not?"_

_Ivy gave a small smirk. "Lots of people in the muggle care about me and will know that I'm not with my real godfather. He won't let me go with you without a fight."_

_Sirius sneered. "What is one muggle going to do to me? We can make any muggle forget about you." _

_Ivy had just opened her mouth when she noticed Moody's wand arm snap up and shoot a spell at her. Ivy couldn't even get her magic to respond and she didn't know how to defend herself without her wand. She was forced to watch the triumphant faces of the wizards as they shot spells at the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents and the Director getting hit with the worst spell that she had ever seen, the Death Spell._

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Ivy shot up and fell off of her bed. She quickly looked around to realize that she was in her room in Malibu, safe and sound with her dad and everyone downstairs. She looked at her clock which read 1:07 a.m. Ivy walked towards her bedroom door; she wanted to make sure her dad was safe and sound. She'd had nightmares ever since the battle against Loki, which was two weeks ago. Every night she would go to bed and have the same bad dream without fail and every night she would seek out her dad. It always happened, even though she felt safe and secure with everyone there.

It was five days ago when the 'Avengers' had come to live with them before the Tower was redone. Five days of living with Natasha Romanoff, Clint Barton, and Steve Rogers. Thor had left the day after the battle with Loki, and Bruce had come back with them when they left. Ivy knew that when they moved back into the Tower in roughly mid-August that Phil Coulson was going to live with them and look after the Avengers. Ivy was just thankful that Steve and Bruce had been briefed about wizards, witches, and magic. She didn't think everyone would be able to live together if they didn't know about her and what she did every day. They would probably find the person sized fireplace a little out of place also.

It had been an hour after her dad was confirmed alive that Ivy had gotten to see Phil in the hospital. The Director and Agent Hill had taken her to the same hospital that Phil was in to meet up with the Avengers. They were to have a full check up and make sure things were alright. While waiting for them to come to the hospital, Ivy had sat in Phil's room watching over him. Phil was in critical condition and wasn't going to be out of it for a while but they planned on a healthy and full recovery. The Director had personally thanked her for saving Phil and offered her a job when she was done with school, which she said she would think about it. Ivy neglected to tell her father about that and she had no intention of telling him.

But every night the dreams would come, even though she and her dad had tried different things to make them go away. Warmed honey milk, her lavender bear, sleeping in the same room with her dad, even curled up with her dad, the rocking chair, sleeping pills prescribed from Dr. Allison. Ivy knew a sleeping potion would help but she didn't want to take them if she didn't have to. She had read about how addicting they could become.

Ivy knocked on her dad's door before opening it just enough to stick her head in. Not seeing him, she called for Jarvis to see where her dad was.

"He still hasn't come home from when he left with Dr. Banner," Jarvis said.

"Thank you, Jarvis." Ivy walked down to the kitchen, hoping that there was something to eat that was easy to make. She had forgotten that her dad had gone to show Bruce the labs down at Stark Inc. She didn't understand, considering the lab downstairs was better. Apparently her dad had the arc reactor, which was destroyed when she was fourteen, fixed and upgraded. She also didn't understand how someone could look around the labs and still be there even after six hours.

Ivy didn't realize anyone was still up until she bumped into Steve when she walked into the kitchen.

It had taken a day or so for Ivy to warm up to Steve. After all the fighting she saw between her dad and him, she didn't want any part of it. After being home alone with just him she warmed up to him. She found out that he was a really nice guy who was willing to listen and help her with anything she needed. In return she listened to him talk about how different things were from his time period to now. Plus she got to hear stories about her grandfather, from the point of view of a good friend and not from newspapers, Stain, and her dad. It saddens her that her dad never knew that part of his father, that he only knew an absent parent.

"Sorry about that, Steve, I didn't know anyone was still up." Ivy walked towards the fridge to pull out some cran-grape juice and get a cup from the cabinet.

"No, it was my fault. I wasn't watching where I was going," Steve said, pulling out a pan and pot and putting them on the stove. He put water into the pot and turned it on.

Ivy watched as she took a drink out of her cup before shoving the bottle back into the fridge. She kept the fridge door open but also opened the freezer and stood there, debating on what she wanted. She frowned. She didn't really want to make anything, feeling lazy but hungry.

"I'm making some mac and cheese with grilled cheeses. Want some?" Steve offered from his spot in front of the counter, buttering the four pieces of bread in front of him. He already had the water heating up so the noodles could go in.

"Sure, thanks." Ivy moved closer to his spot till she was standing next to him. She noticed that he had two boxes of macaroni and cheese and she went to get another box.

"Thanks." He smiled at her and Ivy felt her heart beat a little faster and her cheeks warm up. "How many grilled cheeses did you want?"

"Two if that's alright?" Steve nodded, while Ivy moved to get the plates and silverware. She set them by the stove.

When the water was at the boiling point Ivy added the three boxes while Steve started to make the grilled cheeses.

After Steve had put the food on their plates, they moved to the living room and turned on the T.V.

"Was there anything you wanted to watch?" Ivy asked, flicking through channels just long enough to read the names of the shows.

"Not really, no." Steve took a bite out of his grilled cheese.

Ivy nodded before settling on a documentary for the United States. It showed the most notable historic times and Ivy thought it would be another good way for Steve to learn more about the decades he missed and the new period he was in now.

Since Steve had gotten there and somehow managed to take out Jarvis by just touching the system, Ivy had taken it upon herself to slowly teach him how the technology in the house worked. She figured start off with what he was going to use before she taught him something else, plus it got her dad off of Steve for a little bit. All they did was snip at each other or, rather, her dad said something rude and Steve just sniped back at him. Ivy was waiting for the two of them to start a physical fight. She and Clint had a bet running on how long it would take (she figured they wouldn't hit each other till after she started school in August while Clint said before).

By the time the show was over both of them had finished their food and Ivy had rinsed everything and put it in the dishwasher.

Ivy was dozing on one side of the couch while Steve was sitting on the other when the end credits came up. "Do you want to watch another one?" Ivy asked, already flipping through channels.

Steve stretched from his spot before shaking his head. "No, I think I'll actually go to bed now. How about you?'

"Nah, I think I'll stay up a little bit longer." Ivy quickly found a cartoon for her age group.

Steve grimaced when the show made a crude joke but it made Ivy smile. He turned back to her. "Did you have another nightmare?"

Ivy pursed her lips on hearing the question but she did nod her head. "They've come every night so far. Why not tonight?"

"Sorry, I heard Stark talking with Bruce about it. Did you try exercising before you go to bed? You know, wear out the body and maybe you won't think about it."

"I did that yesterday. I spent time in the training room till I couldn't feel my limbs and I still had a nightmare."

Ivy saw Steve frown. "Have you talked about them? Like what happens in them?"

Ivy rolled her eyes at him. "Of course I've talked about them. Told my dad, Bruce, Nurse Jenny, Dr. Allison, I even called Blaise to complain about them. They still come!"

Steve frowned even more. "But have you talked about how you feel in them? Like how the dream makes you react?"

Ivy frowned before admitting. "Not in detail."

Steve nodded before sliding down the couch till he was next to her. "Maybe if you just talked about that instead of what is actually happening, you'll be able to stop having them."

"Since when did you become a mind shrink?" Ivy joked, feeling nervous. Nervous about having him sit so close and nervous about speaking of her dreams.

"Since I've had someone tell me the same thing."

Ivy felt her breath catch. "I'm sorry about that."

Steve waved his hand. "S.H.I.E.L.D. figured I needed the help and I still accept it. I understand that I'm living in a different time and things have changed, drastically too."

Ivy nodded her head. "When I first moved here my dad had me talk to someone too. Living here was totally different from living with my mum's family. It was a shock at first and my dad did everything he could to make it easier."

"I assumed that you lived with Stark your whole life."

Ivy shook her head. "Not for the first six years of my life. My mum died while giving birth to me and my adopted father died defending me from an intruder that came into our house about a week or so after I was born. My aunt always told me that my mum died because she had me and that my 'father' killed himself because he couldn't stand the look of me."

Ivy ignored Steve when he made a sound and wrapped one of his muscled arms around her thin shoulders, but she did lean into his side, resting her head on his shoulder.

"The minute my dad found out that that was what I was told, he did his own digging and found out that my 'father' died protecting me from some crazy guy. Father had killed the other guy but he died of his own injuries trying to get to a hospital with me. One of the neighbors found him passed out right by the gate of the house we were living in and called the police. My neighbor found my aunt and her family. I lived there for the next six years. My uncle hated me and the minute I was able to understand things he made me start chores while his son was able to play and eat as much as he wanted. I was forced to live in a cupboard and if I didn't finish my chores I was sent there without food."

Ivy settled herself more firmly into Steve's side as she spoke, and he rubbed her arm lightly in a comforting gesture, making goose bumps appear. Then she continued.

"Things started to get worse when Dudley, my cousin, and I started primary school. I was doing better than Dudley and my aunt and uncle hated it. So my uncle started to give me more chores so I couldn't always get my homework done. But I learned quickly to do it straightaway when it was given and I was still able to do better than Dudley. My uncle started to hit me after that happened. Then one day I was in class and Dudley was picking on me again. He figured if his father could do it then why couldn't he? And his parents encouraged it. I was feeling anxiety from everything and I changed my teacher's hair to blue. No one knew what happened but my cousin did since stuff like that happened around me a lot. I was a witchling and that's what happens when we're emotional. Just like the Director said on the aircraft, sometimes we can't control what our magic does, but even more so when we're young or under emotional stress. That was the first night I got belted by my uncle. Six hits for my age. It was also the first night my aunt showed concern for me. She put ointment and gauze on the lacerations and did all my chores the next few days."

Ivy paused a moment to wipe her unshed tears with the sleeve of her nightshirt. She gave a watery smile when Ivory climbed into her lap and Steve silently handed her a handkerchief. She bunched it in her hand while her other hand settled into Ivory's fur. She bit her lip before she slowly started again, her eyes filling up with more tears

"The second time I was belted was also the last time. Dudley had been chasing me with some of his friends and I knew if they caught me I would get hit, so I ran. While I was running I somehow apparated up onto the roof. My uncle had to leave work in the middle of the day and was forced to get me. When we had gotten home I thought he was going to kill me but before he could belt me, my aunt threw herself in between us. Uncle didn't like that one bit and after throwing my aunt out of the way and hurting her arm, he belted me and carved 'Freak' into my lower back. He thought I had used my magic to 'change' my aunt. It was about another month before my aunt got the courage to leave. Of course, this was after he hit me some more and hurt her arm again. She got Dudley and I and we left the country to come here. The minute we found my dad she left. Took Dudley and went to Australia. Not that we knew that right away."

Ivy took a breath and wiped her eyes with the handkerchief before continuing. "My dad is the best thing to happen to me and while there have been some ups and downs, we got through them. My dad made sure that I got taken care of once the abuse was made known and he made sure that my uncle was put behind bars. My aunt was also sent to jail but she didn't have to stay long because of good behavior and after taking a few years of therapy and classes on how to raise a child, Dudley was allowed to live with her again. She still gets routine calls from child services but I haven't heard from her in a good five years when she called to apologize and send my mum's stuff. I still can't stand her and the minute her case worker called about her I had a panic attack, but I can honestly say that she and her son are in the past.

"My dad made sure that I was protected from her. He saved me from her and her monster of a husband. I'll forever love him, he's my strength." Ivy smiled at the thought. "He made sure that Sirius Black, the man who was named my Godfather, couldn't get a hold of me once he was released from jail and tried to contact me. I have a new Godfather and I love him, not some man I've never met before. In my dream he appears, Black I mean, and he tries to take me away from the ones I love. He appears with Dumbledore, who has a lot power in Europe, and Moody, who used to be head of defense in Europe. The last two I met at the trials of my uncle and aunt. They tried to steal me away from my dad but they didn't realize that he had friends in high places.

"My dream starts off with my dad falling out of the portal but instead of living he dies. They show up in the middle of the aircraft and they shoot some spells and the agents retaliate with bullets, but in the end Moody hits me with a body binding spell and I'm forced to watch them kill some of the agents, just because they were there**. **Black would tell me that he could make everyone I cared about forget about me. That I wouldn't exist for them and I get so scared because I knew they have their hands on me and they can make people I love forget about me and there is nothing I could do about it. They could make me forget about my loved ones. Make me forget about my dad, the one I love the most. I'm so terrified that they'll show up someday and take me away, even if I'm of age in the wizarding world. I would never be able to step foot on American ground. I'd be forced back to Europe and made to train, train to help them fight their own war against people that are long dead or in prison."

Ivy by that point had tears running down her face, but she also felt relieved, like she had something to say but couldn't get across until now, and she felt so much lighter.

Ivy felt Steve shift and then she was pulled into his arms and sitting sideways in his lap, with Ivory jumping off her lap and next to them. She looked at him, startled before laying her head on his shoulders and wrapping her arms around his neck.

"You probably think I'm being childish," Ivy whispered into his neck. She sniffed, firstly to make sure her snot didn't get on him, and secondly so she could smell his scent, his shampoo and aftershave. She felt herself go slightly dizzy from the effects of sitting so close to him but she felt disappointed that she would forever be a child in his eyes.

Steve shook his head. "I don't think you're childish. I think you're a brave young woman who has faced tons of hurdles that most have not. That you are able to talk about it to someone you probably don't trust that much shows even more maturity than most people."

Ivy lent back to look at Steve, using the handkerchief to wipe her eyes and nose. "I do trust you. Anyone who has access to a computer or has old newspapers and magazines knows about my past, not in detail but they know I've been abused. When my dad felt that I was ready and he had the okay from my therapist we set up for an interview. Everyone wanted to know why my dad had gone to court with my relatives and they finally had the answer."

"That just proves that you are a mature young woman, not childish," Steve said, shifting on the couch to get comfortable with her still in his arms.

"Thank you, Steve, for letting me talk." Ivy put her head over his heart and let her eyes shut.

"You can come to me for anything, Ivy," Steve said quietly. "But I have one question for you."

"Shoot."

"What in God's name is on the Television?"

Ivy gave a small laugh. "It's called Robot Chicken, it does skits of shows and movies of this period and sometimes of things from history," she explained before calling to Jarvis to turn it off.

Ivy drifted off to sleep with a smile on her face and she didn't have a nightmare that night.


	15. AN

I would like to apologize for not updating sooner or posting an A/N note. I had several deaths in my families since the middle of January and I recently had to put my dog, who I've had for ten years, down- due to bone cancer.

I haven't given up on this fic and I am currently trying to write the next chapter, just struggling with parts of it. I would like to have chapter fifteen out before Iron Man 3, which I'm super excited for! I would like to thank everyone for their reviews. I have been reading them but didn't get around responding. So thank you and to everyone who has favorite and followed.

Since the beginning of the story I've pretty much knew who I wanted Ivy to be with but I would like to know if you would want her with Steve or Loki. I've recently been flipping between the two and have two separate ideas on how it would work. Just leave who you think in a review that would be great, I'll stop taking reviews for the relationship on Monday.


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